Emerson emphasized the relationship between seeing, nature, and identity when he famously wrote “one of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.” This sentiment is echoed throughout Elizabeth Bradfield’s noteworthy debut, Interpretive Work, both through her choice of subject matter—two recurring themes are nature and identity—and by what emerges as the collection’s central concern: the value of looking deeply into the nature of things to discover their hidden significance. Bradfield’s interest is in uncovering what others tend to overlook. She highlights this by her careful choices of both the collection’s title and epigraph, an excerpt from Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria: “[awaken] the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and [direct] it to the loveliness and wonders of the world before us […] for […] we have eyes, yet see not.” This quotation sets the tone nicely for the collection because it advises us to how to read her poems at the same time as it points to the type of insightful, and sometimes incisive, observations she makes.
A particular strength of this collection is that Bradfield consistently reveals herself to be a poet highly attuned to her environment, a trait that can be attributed, in part, to the fact that she worked for a time as a guide and naturalist. This experience not only seems to inform much of what she writes, but it also explains her urge to guide her readers—that is, to instruct us how to read her poems and to stress the importance of seeing all that surrounds us. Bradfield’s desire for others to take in what they see—and her frustration when they don’t—comes out when she addresses the relationship between people and the natural world. For instance, in “The Shepherd of Tourists on a $20 Sunset Cruise Speaks,” she recollects her disappointed realization that sightseers aboard the Alaskan whale-watching vessel she works on remain largely oblivious to their surroundings, despite nature’s spectacle: “Through my patter of ecology and evolution, / I’m thinking What can I say that will matter beyond this, / your annual ten paid days?” Bradfield expresses a similar type of despair in “Mid-Trip Mid-Season,” another poem set aboard a tour boat. Here, she laments the tourists’ inattention and how “No one wants to know / what’s outside unless it’s off the charts.”
Bradfield’s interests, however, go beyond simply revealing insights about vacationers. She remains invested, as well, in finding the deeper significance in more mundane aspects of life. In “Wednesday Night, 9:30 pm at the Convenience Store,” a quick food-shopping trip and a clerk with the improbable name of “Winsome,” give her cause for reflection. The poem ends with Bradfield expressing gratitude toward the clerk for making her think of more than herself:>
Thank you, Winsome. Winsome, which neither
of us could be. Winsome,
thank you for the slow woman ahead of me in line
deciding between credit or debit. For what
you offer. For whatever made me look up
from my scattered, selfish life and read your name.
This clerk has made her pause and take things in and this is precisely what Bradfield wants others to do.
This urge to redirect others’ attention emerges, for example, in “Now You See Me,” a personal poem which addresses the politics surrounding sexual orientation, including being “out-of-the closet” and in the public eye. Here, she wonders what a neighbor means when she asks “Where’s your friend? I haven’t / seen her around lately?” and can’t decide whether or not they are “speaking code.” She similarly ponders remarks made by a flight attendant and credit union employees. The poem ends with Bradfield attempting to make herself visible by declaring: “Now / you see us. And there are others, / houses all around you lighting up.”
Bradfield depicts scenes commonplace and extraordinary alike, and her poetry touches on a variety of topics, yet despite this, there is nonetheless a common concern that unites many of this collection’s poems: the human inclination to overlook our environment. Indeed, it is this tendency that Bradfield reflects on and cautions against throughout her impressive debut.