Brazil

Though Bishop does not explicitly mention Brazil in this poem, "Questions of Travel" appears in the section of the collection called "Brazil." Visual details like waterfalls, mountaintops, green hummingbirds, pink trees, a gas station attendant, a Jesuit church, and baroque architectural styles also suggest that this poem takes place in Brazil. Bishop lived in Rio de Janeiro for 15 years.

The Gas Station

One experience that the speaker feels she would have missed out on had she stayed home was hearing a gas station attendant walk across the station wearing handmade wooden clogs. The speaker describes the place itself in terms of its "grease-stained filling-station floor" (39). This is not a particularly positive image, but the experience clearly left a lasting impression on the speaker. The term "filling-station" literally refers to the way attendants fill gas tanks, but perhaps the word "filling" can also be read as evoking particular emotions...