"Crusoe in England" appears in Geography III (1976), the final collection Elizabeth Bishop published during her lifetime. The poem is a dramatic monologue voiced by Robinson Crusoe, literature's most famous castaway (the hero of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe), long after he escapes his desert island and returns home to England. Though Crusoe is inventive and resourceful on the island, he recalls being bored and lonely there—until the arrival of the young man named Friday, with whom he forged a romantic bond. Now, years after Friday's untimely death, he is lonely in a different way altogether. The longest poem of Bishop's career, "Crusoe in England" is often read as an indirect reflection on her life and art as well as a meditation on solitude, love, and grief.

• Read the full text of “Crusoe in England”

• “Crusoe in England” Summary

• “Crusoe in England” Themes

  • 

    Isolation, Displacement, and Connection

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-182
  • 

    Subjectivity, Individuality, and Artistic Creation

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-28
    • Lines 55-64
    • Lines 79-99
    • Lines 115-120
    • Lines 154-180
  • 

    Humanity and Nature

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-182
  • 

    Love, Grief, and Guilt

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 129-131
    • Lines 142-153
    • Lines 181-182
  • 

    Procreation and Legacy

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 125-182

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Crusoe in England”

  • Lines 1-7

    A new volcano ...
    ... like a fly.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    They named it. ...
    ... got it right.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-17

    Well, I had ...
    ... heads blown off.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 18-24

    I'd think that ...
    ... or the gulls,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 24-28

    or the overlapping ...
    ... was mostly overcast.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 29-35

    My island seemed ...
    ... whole place hissed?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 36-42

    The turtles lumbered ...
    ... be more turtles.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 43-50

    The beaches were ...
    ... of scuffed-up white.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 51-54

    Glass chimneys, flexible, ...
    ... not much company.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 55-59

    I often gave ...
    ... could have been."

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 60-64

    What's wrong about ...
    ... felt at home.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 65-72

    The sun set ...
    ... sooty, scrub affair.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 73-79

    Snail shells lay ...
    ... I made home-brew.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 79-85

    I'd drink ...
    ... aren't we all?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 86-92

    I felt a ...
    ... drama or astronomy?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 92-99

    The books ...
    ... look it up.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 100-106

    The island smelled ...
    ... they're hurting now.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 107-114

    The questioning shrieks, ...
    ... real shade, somewhere.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 115-120

    I'd heard of ...
    ... sniff the air.   

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 121-128

    I'd grab his ...
    ... wouldn't recognize him.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 129-135

    Dreams were the ...
    ... away from mine,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 135-141

    infinities ...
    ... fauna, their geography.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 142-146

    Just when I ...
    ... we were friends.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 147-152

    If only he ...
    ... a pretty body.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 153-158

    And then one ...
    ... out. I'm old.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 159-164

    I'm bored, too, ...
    ... not to break?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 165-170

    I knew each ...
    ... and pass on.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 171-175

    The local museum's ...
    ... in the fur),

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 176-180

    the parasol that ...
    ... want such things?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 181-182

    —And Friday, my ...
    ... ago come March.

    

    

    

    

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• “Crusoe in England” Symbols

  • 

    Islands

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “where some ship saw an island being born:”
    • Lines 5-9: “and then a black fleck—basalt, probably— / rose in the mate's binoculars / and caught on the horizon like a fly. / They named it. But my poor old island's still / un-rediscovered, un-renamable.”
    • Lines 29-30: “My island seemed to be / a sort of cloud-dump.”
    • Line 68: “The island had one kind of everything:”
    • Lines 86-87: “I felt a deep affection for / the smallest of my island industries.”
    • Line 100: “The island smelled of goat and guano.”
    • Lines 115-116: “I'd heard of cattle getting island-sick. / I thought the goats were.”
    • Lines 133-141: “I'd have / nightmares of other islands / stretching away from mine, infinities / of islands, islands spawning islands, / like frogs' eggs turning into polliwogs / of islands, knowing that I had to live / on each and every one, eventually, / for ages, registering their flora, / their fauna, their geography.”
    • Lines 154-158: “Now I live here, another island, / that doesn't seem like one, but who decides? / My blood was full of them; my brain / bred islands. But that archipelago / has petered out. I'm old.”
  • 

    Volcanoes/Craters

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-7: “A new volcano has erupted, / the papers say, and last week I was reading / where some ship saw an island being born: / at first a breath of steam, ten miles away; / and then a black fleck—basalt, probably— / rose in the mate's binoculars / and caught on the horizon like a fly.”
    • Lines 11-20: “Well, I had fifty-two / miserable, small volcanoes I could climb / with a few slithery strides— / volcanoes dead as ash heaps. / I used to sit on the edge of the highest one / and count the others standing up, / naked and leaden, with their heads blown off. / I'd think that if they were the size / I thought volcanoes should be, then I had / become a giant;”
    • Lines 30-33: “All the hemisphere's / left-over clouds arrived and hung / above the craters—their parched throats / were hot to touch.”
    • Lines 40-41: “The folds of lava, running out to sea, / would hiss.”
    • Lines 43-45: “The beaches were all lava, variegated, / black, red, and white, and gray; / the marbled colors made a fine display.”
    • Lines 61-63: “With my legs dangling down familiarly / over a crater's edge, I told myself / "Pity should begin at home."”
    • Lines 117-119: “One billy-goat would stand on the volcano / I'd christened  / Mont d'Espoir /  or  / Mount Despair / (I'd time enough to play with names),”
  • 

    Goats

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 100-106: “The island smelled of goat and guano. / The goats were white, so were the gulls, / and both too tame, or else they thought / I was a goat, too, or a gull. / Baa, baa, baa  / and  / shriek, shriek, shriek, / baa... shriek...  / baa / ... /  I still can't shake / them from my ears; they're hurting now.”
    • Lines 115-128: “I'd heard of cattle getting island-sick. / I thought the goats were. / One billy-goat would stand on the volcano / I'd christened  / Mont d'Espoir /  or  / Mount Despair / (I'd time enough to play with names), / and bleat and bleat, and sniff the air.    / I'd grab his beard and look at him. / His pupils, horizontal, narrowed up / and expressed nothing, or a little malice. / I got so tired of the very colors! / One day I dyed a baby goat bright red / with my red berries, just to see / something a little different. / And then his mother wouldn't recognize him.”
    • Lines 131-133: “But then I'd dream of things / like slitting a baby's throat, mistaking it / for a baby goat.”
    • Lines 150-151: “He'd pet the baby goats sometimes, / and race with them, or carry one around.”
    • Lines 174-175: “my shedding goatskin trousers / (moths have got in the fur),”
  • 

    The Knife

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 161-170: “The knife there on the shelf— / it reeked of meaning, like a crucifix. / It lived. How many years did I / beg it, implore it, not to break? / I knew each nick and scratch by heart, / the bluish blade, the broken tip, / the lines of wood-grain on the handle... / Now it won't look at me at all. / The living soul has dribbled away. / My eyes rest on it and pass on.”
    • Lines 171-173: “The local museum's asked me to / leave everything to them: / the flute, the knife, the shrivelled shoes,”
  • 

    The Flute

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 82-84: “and play my home-made flute / (I think it had the weirdest scale on earth) / and, dizzy, whoop and dance among the goats.”
    • Lines 171-173: “The local museum's asked me to / leave everything to them: / the flute, the knife, the shrivelled shoes,”

• “Crusoe in England” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “where some ship saw an island being born:”
    • Line 7: “and caught on the horizon like a fly.”
    • Line 14: “volcanoes dead as ash heaps.”
    • Line 17: “naked and leaden, with their heads blown off.”
    • Lines 29-30: “My island seemed to be / a sort of cloud-dump.”
    • Lines 32-33: “the craters—their parched throats / were hot to touch.”
    • Line 37: “hissing like teakettles.”
    • Lines 49-50: “their heads in cloud, their feet in moving patches / of scuffed-up white.”
    • Lines 51-52: “Glass chimneys, flexible, attenuated, / sacerdotal beings of glass...”
    • Lines 52-53: “I watched    / the water spiral up in them like smoke.”
    • Lines 94-95: “well, I tried / reciting to my iris-beds,”
    • Lines 111-112: “When all the gulls flew up at once, they sounded / like a big tree in a strong wind, its leaves.”
    • Lines 136-138: “islands spawning islands, / like frogs' eggs turning into polliwogs / of islands,”
    • Lines 156-158: “My blood was full of them; my brain / bred islands. But that archipelago / has petered out.”
    • Lines 161-162: “The knife there on the shelf— / it reeked of meaning, like a crucifix.”
    • Line 169: “The living soul has dribbled away.”
    • Lines 178-179: “It still will work but, folded up, / looks like a plucked and skinny fowl.”

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Lines 16-17: “and count the others standing up, / naked and leaden, with their heads blown off.”
    • Lines 32-33: “above the craters—their parched throats / were hot to touch.”
    • Line 52: “sacerdotal beings of glass...”
    • Line 107: “The questioning shrieks, the equivocal replies”
    • Lines 168-169: “Now it won't look at me at all. / The living soul has dribbled away.”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-182

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “volcano”
    • Line 3: “island”
    • Line 8: “island's”
    • Line 9: “un-,” “un-”
    • Line 12: “volcanoes”
    • Line 14: “volcanoes”
    • Line 19: “volcanoes”
    • Lines 19-20: “I had / become a giant”
    • Line 21: “I had become a giant”
    • Line 23: “goats,” “turtles”
    • Line 24: “gulls,” “rollers”
    • Line 25: “glittering,” “rollers”
    • Line 26: “closing,” “closing”
    • Line 27: “glittering,” “glittering”
    • Line 29: “island”
    • Line 30: “cloud”
    • Line 31: “clouds”
    • Line 32: “craters”
    • Line 35: “hissed”
    • Line 36: “turtles”
    • Line 37: “hissing,” “teakettles”
    • Line 39: “kettle”
    • Line 40: “lava”
    • Line 41: “hiss”
    • Line 42: “turtles”
    • Line 43: “lava”
    • Line 55: “self-pity”
    • Line 60: “self-pity”
    • Line 62: “crater's”
    • Line 63: “Pity,” “home,” “the more”
    • Line 64: “pity,” “I felt,” “the more,” “I felt,” “home”
    • Line 65: “sun,” “the sea,” “sun”
    • Line 66: “the sea”
    • Line 67: “one of,” “one of”
    • Line 68: “island”
    • Line 69: “tree,” “snail”
    • Line 70: “shell”
    • Line 71: “tree”
    • Line 73: “Snail,” “shells”
    • Line 75: “irises”
    • Line 76: “berry,” “red”
    • Line 79: “home”
    • Line 82: “home-made,” “flute”
    • Line 84: “goats”
    • Line 85: “Home-made, home-made!”
    • Line 87: “smallest,” “island”
    • Line 88: “smallest”
    • Line 90: “I didn't know enough”
    • Line 91: “didn't I know enough”
    • Line 95: “iris-beds”
    • Line 97: “the bliss,” “The bliss”
    • Line 100: “goat”
    • Line 101: “goats,” “gulls”
    • Line 103: “goat,” “gull”
    • Line 104: “shriek, shriek, shriek,”
    • Lines 105-105: “baa... shriek...  / baa / ...”
    • Line 108: “hissing”
    • Line 109: “hissing,” “turtles”
    • Line 111: “gulls”
    • Line 112: “tree”
    • Line 113: “I'd,” “tree”
    • Line 115: “I'd,” “island”
    • Line 116: “goats”
    • Line 117: “billy-goat,” “volcano”
    • Line 120: “bleat,” “bleat”
    • Line 125: “baby goat,” “red”
    • Line 126: “red,” “berries”
    • Line 129: “Dreams,” “dreamed”
    • Line 131: “dream”
    • Line 132: “baby's”
    • Line 133: “baby goat”
    • Line 134: “islands”
    • Line 136: “islands,” “islands,” “islands”
    • Line 138: “islands”
    • Line 140: “their”
    • Line 141: “their,” “their”
    • Line 145: “Friday was nice.”
    • Line 146: “Friday was nice,”
    • Line 150: “baby goats”
    • Line 152: “Pretty,” “pretty”
    • Line 154: “island”
    • Line 156: “My,” “my”
    • Line 157: “islands”
    • Line 159: “tea”
    • Line 161: “The knife”
    • Line 164: “it,” “it”
    • Line 166: “the,” “the”
    • Line 167: “the”
    • Line 173: “flute,” “the knife”
    • Line 174: “goatskin”
    • Line 181: “Friday,” “Friday”

  • Rhetorical Question

    

    

    

    

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    Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

    • Line 56: “Do I deserve this?”
    • Lines 57-58: “Was there / a moment when I actually chose this?”
    • Line 60: “What's wrong about self-pity, anyway?”
    • Line 85: “Home-made, home-made! But aren't we all?”
    • Lines 91-92: “Why didn't I know enough of something? / Greek drama or astronomy?”
    • Lines 154-155: “Now I live here, another island, / that doesn't seem like one, but who decides?”
    • Lines 163-164: “How many years did I / beg it, implore it, not to break?”
    • Line 180: “How can anyone want such things?”

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-10: “But my poor old island's still / un-rediscovered, un-renamable. / None of the books has ever got it right”
    • Lines 94-99: “well, I tried / reciting to my iris-beds, / "They flash upon that inward eye, / which is the bliss..." The bliss of what? / One of the first things that I did / when I got back was look it up.”
    • Line 144: “(Accounts of that have everything all wrong.)”
    • Lines 145-146: “Friday was nice. / Friday was nice, and we were friends.”
    • Lines 159-160: “I'm bored, too, drinking my real tea, / surrounded by uninteresting lumber.”
    • Lines 181-182: “—And Friday, my dear Friday, died of measles / seventeen years ago come March.”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-182

• “Crusoe in England” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Basalt
  • Mate's
  • Leaden
  • Hexagon
  • Rollers
  • Cloud-dump
  • Hemisphere's
  • Variegated
  • Marbled
  • Waterspouts
  • Attenuated
  • Sacerdotal
  • Familiarly
  • Scrub
  • Sub-acid
  • Home-brew
  • Scale
  • Inward eye
  • Guano
  • Equivocal
  • Ambulating
  • Island-sick
  • Mont d'Espoir
  • Malice
  • Polliwogs
  • Registering
  • Flora, Fauna
  • Propagate
  • Archipelago
  • Crucifix
  • Implore
  • Parasol
  • (Location in poem: Line 5: “and then a black fleck—basalt, probably—”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Crusoe in England”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Crusoe in England” Speaker

• “Crusoe in England” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Crusoe in England”

• More “Crusoe in England” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Measles and Smallpox in the Americas — Historical context for the poem's tragic ending.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A biography of Bishop via the Poetry Foundation.

    • The Poet Reads — Listen to Bishop's reading of the poem, courtesy of the Poetry Archive.

    • Bishop and Soares — Background on the longtime relationship between the poet and Lota de Macedo Soares, which some critics consider a key inspiration for the poem.

    • The Poem Aloud — A reading of part of the poem, with commentary by Bishop's friend and fellow poet, Frank Bidart.

    • The Original Crusoe — Read the original (1719) novel on which the poem is based.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Elizabeth Bishop

    • Filling Station

    • First Death in Nova Scotia

    • One Art

    • Sestina

    • The Fish

    • The Man-Moth

    • The Mountain

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