The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Bishop, Elizabeth. “Filling Station.” Questions of Travel (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1965).

Note that all parenthetical citations refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

"Filling Station," a poem by Elizabeth Bishop published in her 1965 collection Questions of Travel, is composed of six stanzas of varying lengths. The poem exemplifies Bishop's poetic exploration of the physical details as well as impressions of her surroundings. Notions of home, longing, and belonging appear throughout the collection, reflecting Bishop's own experiences. Early in her childhood, her father died and her mother became unfit to care for her. Over the course of Bishop's life, she lived and traveled widely. "Home" was Nova Scotia, New England, Washington, Brazil, and Key West, among other places. The speakers in Bishop's poems often observe places, people, and objects from a distance.

The speaker in "The Filling Station" is at first critical of the dirty appearance of a family-owned gas station, and she questions why the owners choose to display a plant and a doily. But despite the obvious dirt, oil, and labor that color the scene, the speaker decides that the existence of the plant and doily show a divine redemptive love.