"Pink Dog"

"Ash Wednesday'll come but Carnival is here.

What sambas can you dance?  What will you wear?" (32-3).

"Pink Dog" by Elizabeth Bishop seems to be an extended metaphor which compares the fear that a pink dog strikes into people with the foolish nature of a beggar.  While both of the images in comparison are negative, I feel like this poem is much like "London" in that Bishop is shining them in a new light.  The pink dog has "a case of scabies, but looks intelligent" (8-9).  To me, this line implies that the pink dog is only naked because of an outside force brought upon by some indirect life choices, much like a beggar.  Dogs would never choose to have scabies much like how a beggar would never choose to have to beg.

The quote I chose above mocks society in a sort of way.  The society (Germany calls their Fat Tuesday celebration Karneval, so maybe a German society?) is creating a false sense of perfection in the society with the celebrations.  This correlates with the message that Bishop is achieving because she seems to parallel on the message of Jesus that those with misfortune on earth will have happiness later in eternal life.  Bishop juxtaposes her early negative imagery of the pink dog ("Naked," "passersby draw back and stare," "of course they're mortally afraid") with a new light of hope for the dog that it might look grim now, but in time, the dog will be glorified.

Also, are the rhetorical questions there for a purpose or just decoration?