poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

i think you are all wrong as in all of bishops poems she never puts herself in the spotlight so she is acting as an observer to herself and her grandmother.
She refers to the almanac as a ghost in the play and not a friendly one but an evil one
"grandmother hangs up the clever almanac on its string...the almanac hovers half open above the child.."
it never predicts one good thing in the play and adds more bad memories to bishops already scarred memory

From reading the poem "Sestina" i thought that the child was elizabeth Bishop, and this is the time where her mother has been taken away to the insane asylum. The child has lost her mother but we also see the pain it is causing the grandmother and it is clear she has also lost someone, her daughter.

Oh boy, now that I have read your analyses, I feel that maybe I have been completely off-base!

You see, the very first line allusions that fall is coming, and the time of day is indicated by the failing light in the second line. The grandmother's light is also failing, and her equinoctial tears indicate that this is indeed the fall of her life. Spring rains bring life, and fall rains bring death. It seems clear to me that she is seeing signs everywhere that her time has come.
There are tears everywhere, and some are falling in the flower garden outside, where soon she will be burried. The man is the grim reaper, coming to harvest the fall tears.
The child draws a rigid house and later an inscrutible house to emphasize that there is no escaping death.
The almanac of the grandmother's life predicted all along that this time would come, and now it is "hovering" over her head. "Time to plant tears," says the almanac. Clear that there is no escape, the signs are everywhere, the grandmother reflects back on all of the moons that have passed in her life, all of the days spent in this quaint kitchen with her friends the Little Marvel Stove, the moody teapot, and the almanac, which provided many jokes and laughs. She imagines the tears that she sheds remeniscing of the past falling into the the flower garden the child placed in front of the house.
The child is oblivious, yet prohpetic at the same time. The grandmother tries to cut through the pretense, when she "cuts some bread and says to the child, 'It's time for tea now." What she means to say, is that it is time to enjoy one last cup of tea before she goes to sleep forever. Her teacup is full of "dark brown tears," the color of the mud in the flower garden caused by the tears of nature.
Our existence is not permanent, but the house is. Perhaps the child knows that this house is the only thing that is permanent in its life at this time. What will happen to the child when the grandmother is gone? What will happen to the house, the stove, the teakettle and almanac when she is no longer there to sing to them?