Elizabeth Bishop: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #698

by Jonathan F.S. Post

Very Short Introductions : Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring

Elizabeth Bishop has been described as the 'best-loved' poet in English of the second half of the twentieth century. This Very Short Introduction explores the 90 or so published poems that are at the core of her remarkable canon of verse. Drawing on biographical and critical material, Jonathan Post also makes frequent use of Bishop's letters and commentary by fellow poets, including Marianne Moore, Robert Lowell, and James Merrill to illuminate her writing and contemporary landscape.

Throughout, Post places Bishop's lyric poetry alongside her other poetic genres, short stories, and translations within the context of her life and aeasthetic values, showing how these shaped her work. Ranging across her poems, the book covers a wide range of core themes, including Bishop's powerful use of description, the environment, balance, and ideas of love and loss, as well as looking at Bishop's interest in the visual arts.


ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Poetry, Biography

176 pages, Paperback

Published June 24, 2022

Reviews

[Josh Friedlander · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Not the thought but the mind thinking" was how Bishop described her poetic aim in a letter (the phrase was not her own but originates with the critic M.W. Croll). A very modernist idea, avoiding the impossible attempt to recreate nature, and instead trying to show the process of perception. But Bishop also wore a lot of disguises, trying to avoid being painted as a "certain type of poet". She wrote a famous villanelle (One Art, probably her most famous work) and sestinas, poems about animals (moose, fish, armadillo) and the environment, somewhat confessional poem in the vein of her friends Plath and Lowell, and poems about travel (in Brazil and other places), Robinson Crusoe, and even obliquely about her sexuality (her life with the architect Lota de Macedo Soares is portrayed in Reaching for the Moon). She was delighted when Randall Jarrell, reviewing a collection of hers, compared her poetry to Vermeer: "I could die happy", she wrote to him from Brazil. She liked best the interplay of light and shadow, the hint of what has been left unsaid.

[Michael Loveabudge · Rating 4 out of 5]

How sick is Bishop am I right or wut

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and very thorough in its research — I’m quite curious to pick up Bishop’s poetry now! 🤓

[Nick Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful and personal introduction to her poetry

[ASC Library]

811.54 BisP

[Kristin Sesselja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview about Bishop’s life and a short analysis of a lot of her best poems!

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good little book which has helped me to understand Bishop’s work a bit better. Will be rereading her poems again.

[Edith · Rating 3 out of 5]

reads like a very good, satisfying series of undergraduate lectures