Frustration’s Armored Aroma Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell and The Armadillo by Elizabeth Bishop are two closely related poems. Both share the theme of an animal carrying with it natural defenses, and the image of an isolated spectator. However, there is one important contrast between these poems: The Armadillo portrays a creature who cannot comprehend the events destroying the life about it, whereas the speaker in Skunk Hour understands, possibly too well, the events …showed first 75 words of 872 total…

…showed last 75 words of 872 total…frustrated at its own lack of understanding concerning the destruction of life, it does not feel the loneliness and pain the speaker in Skunk Hour so thoroughly comprehends. Bibliography Works Cited Lowell, Robert. “Skunk Hour,” in The Vintage Book Of Contemporary American Poetry, ed. J.D. McClatchy. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. p. 10-11 Bishop, Elizabeth. “The Armadillo,” in The Vintage Book Of Contemporary American Poetry, ed. J.D. McClatchy. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. p. 33-34