Oh, the Irony (Question 13)

Elizabeth Bishop's "Pink Dog" is a rather strange poem (if "February" wasn't in this unit, I would have called it the strangest in this unit). At the outset, it appears that the speaker is addressing a hairless dog which lives in the street. The audience feels some sympathy because "the passersby draw back and stare" (6) at the dog, yet they are also rather repulsed by the dog's "naked and pink" (5) appearance. By line 11 or 12, though, it becomes evident that the subject is, in fact, a female beggar: "poor bitch,/ while you go begging, living by your wits?/ Didn't you know? It's been in all the papers,/ to solve this problem, how they deal with beggars?" (11-14) It is at this point that the poem starts to fill with verbal irony. Bishop continues to describe the beggars as "sick, four-legged dogs" (21) and provides a "practical [and] sensible/ solution" (27-28) to the beggars' current state: society should simply cover the beggars' poverty and ignore their plight. After all, "Tonight [the beggars] simply can't afford to be a-/n eyesore" (29-30). The speaker then orders the beggars to "Dress up! Dress up and dance at Carnival" (39). After describing the terrible plight of the beggars and expressing sympathy for them, however, it is clear that Bishop does not actually believe the solution which she proposes is a wise one. Yet by using verbal irony to make her point instead of simply expressing her opinion, Bishop takes a Swiftian approach and shocks readers into accepting her opinion. Instead of browbeating the audience with her opinion, Bishop subtly and effectively proves her belief.