Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments

by Elizabeth Bishop, Alice Quinn (Editor)

From the mid-1930s to 1978 Elizabeth Bishop published some ninety poems and thirty translations. Yet her notebooks reveal that she embarked upon many more compositions, some existing in only fragmentary form and some embodied in extensive drafts. Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box presents, alongside facsimiles of many notebook pages from which they are drawn, poems Bishop began soon after college, reflecting her passion for Elizabethan verse and surrealist technique; love poems and dream fragments from the 1940s; poems about her Canadian childhood; and many other works that heretofore have been quoted almost exclusively in biographical and critical studies.

This revelatory and moving selection brings us into the poet's laboratory, showing us the initial provocative images that moved Bishop to begin a poem, illustrating terrain unexplored in the work published during her lifetime. Editor Alice Quinn has also mined the Bishop archives for rich tangential material that illuminates the poet's sources and intentions.

Genres: Poetry

400 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and writer from Worcester, Massachusetts. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956. and a National Book Award Winner for Poetry in 1970. She is considered one of the most important and distinguished American poets of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book awhile before it came out, via a Fresh Air interview with an old friend of Bishop's. He was talking about how important he felt the posthumous publication of her papers was to the poetry community, despite her fervent wishes to the contrary prior to her death in 1979. When Bishop's partner and literary executor passed away a few years ago, it was decided by her close friends and confidantes that it was time to take her journals and draft books out of storage. Then began the long process of deciphering Bishop's handwriting - in the foreword the editor describes her script as 'challenging', which is very generous - and reconstructing draft poems with arrows into margins and suggested alterations all over the page into a cohesive little zygote of poetry. This is all done masterfully, and the concise descriptors for which Bishop is so well-loved are not lost here, and the reader is still allowed a window into her process and the evolution of her works.
Bishop often spent years revising a piece before it ever saw a publisher, and was meticulous in her work. In the appendices to the book it was decided to include the unpublished draft forms of Bishop's most famous piece, "One Art". It's fascinating to see this piece winnow down from a page-long, blank verse work to a villanelle that is well-known to any English major. Frankly, there are some things in the original that I wish had stayed - a more emotionally developed picture of the subject in the last stanza, more of a sense of uncertainty about 'the art of losing' and the speaker's relationship to her lost things. "One Art" is known for being one of her 'fastest' poems, from infancy to publication, but given the number of completed drafts [11!:], her work on it must have been feverish.
I've long loved Bishop, and was so pleased to add this collection to my library. Some of the pieces are certainly drafts that are best left that way, but these are far outshined by poems like "Breakfast Song", "Hannah A." and "...My Compass Still Points North". I heartily recommend this book to any Bishop fans, or inquisitors about the writing process in form-poetry.

[Matthew Hittinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly a labor of love for Alice Quinn. I found her copious endnotes far more pleasurable than the fragments and abandoned poems. Remind me to destroy my fragments folder before I die.

My favorite quotes:

"Translating poetry is like trying to put your feet into gloves."

"...the situation of the poet: the difficulty of combining the real with the decidedly un-real; the natural with the unnatural; the curious effect a poem produces of being as normal as sight, and yet as synthetic, as artificial, as a glass eye."

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compared to other classic poets, Elizabeth Bishop’s body of acknowledged work is rather small. This is because Bishop was a harsh but sagacious self-critic who suppressed all poems but those which she thought truly successful. After her death, various suppressed drafts have come to light, and have been published in e.g. the Library of America edition of her complete works, but rarely does this discarded material have much appeal even for Bishop fans.

This volume of uncollected poems, drafts, and fragments, which Alice Quinn drew out of various boxes stored at Vassar, has been widely criticized as the dregs of Bishop’s work, and rightly so. Some of the poems are mere doggerel, whether because they date from Bishop’s very youth or because they were jotted off for humorous effect on some private occasion. The material here also includes short stories, but Bishop was never a particularly good prose writer even at her best, and some of this material simply breaks off.

The one thing that saves this book from being worthwhile solely to a tiny community of Bishop scholars and biographers, are the drafts of Bishop’s poem “One Art”, often regarded as her masterpiece. The drafts are reproduced here in facsimile and show its rather drastic evolution from some vague initial ideas to the tight villanelle that was ultimately published.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of false starts, stops, stutter-steps, and ruminations from one of my favorite poets. For the fan, although it's a bonus and an education for all to be able to read the multiple drafts of the classic poem "One Art."

[Riah · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for great poetry.... this isn't necessarily the place. If you're looking to understand the PROCESS of great poetry from the mind of the poet, there may be no better. I really enjoyed the actual archival pages, complete with stickers from childhood and the developing mind of a poet across a span of 40 years. Truly enjoyable.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like Elizabeth Bishop but her unpublished poems, notes and ephemera are pretty uneven. A few are worth the price of admission, many are probably of interest primarily to a completist. There are 130 pages of endnotes that I may read one day. But not today. : )

Here is an example of a shorter poem left on the cutting room floor:

To the Admirable Miss Moore,
of whom we're absolutely sure,

knowing that through the longest night
Her syllables will come out right,
her similes will all flash bright,

what can we give, yet not be rude,
to show the proper gratitude?

[Xenia Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of drafts, fragments and poem seeds has been beautifully curated and annotated by Alice Quinn with an extensive appendix comprising of journal entries and letters and further background information on these previously uncollected poems. Both a joy and a fascinating read, it will provide students and lovers of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry a treasure trove of notes on the journeys, people and places she wove into her poems.

[Theresa Lange · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much very good

[Diann Blakely]

National Poetry Month (NPM) has become such an institution that Parnassian Top 10 lists now appear each April. This month was dubbed "the coolest" when NPM celebrated its inauguration in 1996, with sponsoring institution the Academy of American Poets handing out thousands of copies of T.S. Eliot's THE WASTE LAND at post offices and libraries across the country. In its day, Eliot's poem attracted much controversy, but generating the most argument this year was EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE JUKEBOX, a collection of Elizabeth Bishop's early unpublished work, drafts and not-quite finished poems edited by Alice Quinn. One reviewer suggested that poets begin burning their early and unfinished work lest the fate that has befallen Bishop befall them. "NO," I shout. How else do young poets learn how to write without becoming hideously discouraged without seeing work-in-progress? Isn't the facsimile edition of THE WASTE LAND itself, half crossed out and heavily revised by Ezra Pound, one of the most valuable documents of 20th century American literature? To this, I shout even more loudly, "YES!" and "Thank you, Alice Quinn!"











(originally published in the TENNESSEAN)

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book of fragments made me excited, in my limited knowledge of bishop, to read her finished, polished, intended stuff. it was fascinating, beautiful in many places, and well worth reading. i did find myself wondering about the intention of the author - do we have a right to see this? what difference does it make, considering it appears in the wake of her intentionally published work (i.e. the writing here stands obviously apart from the rest of her work as something wholly different, private, experimental and playful). how is it different from publishing letters or diaries after an author's death?

most amazing to me were the drafts of 'one art', which was my typically first bishop experience, years ago (props to AP english). proof that wicked-good vilanelles don't spring fully-formed from the head of whoever. writing is more like sculpting than any other artform, it seems by all those many, ever-shrinking versions.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a lover of Bishop, I was conflicted about the publication of this collection. On the one hand, I was eager to turn its pages; on the other hand, I wished I could keep it from falling into the wrong hands. I wonder if others feel as protective of the poets they love? I suppose it's a bit silly.

As Bonnie Costello put so well the last time I heard her speak, reading recent Bishop scholarship often feels like "rummaging through the poets closet." The same could be said for this compilation. The poems are not, in many cases, good. It seems almost a betrayal to publish them.

And yet...I own a copy.

I would urge anyone interested in Bishop's work to read her other poems. Her prose, too, is delightful.

[Julene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this as a companion book when I studied Elizabeth Bishop. Alice Quinn provides footnotes for each unpublished poem, draft and fragment she found. It most likely Bishop did not want to publish any of these, so this book provoked much controversy when it was in process and at publication. But Alice Quinn did fabulous work putting each piece into Elizabeth's history. I did not complete reading all the footnotes, but enough to appreciate the years of work this book took.

[G Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read just half of this book -- to page 132 to be exact. Then it was due back at the library and I decided to read poems that Ms. Bishop had knowingly published instead. She was, according to what I read and the film I watched, very particular about which poems were "ready" for publication. Much of what is in this book was published without her knowing, and I felt guilty for getting to know her work this way. Better to start with a collection she assembled and approved of.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her uncollected works. Some drafts are better than others. These are more raw, she's covering subjects that she didn't feel comfortable displaying to the public (namingly her relationship with Lota.) Good insight into her process.

[Juliana Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Quinn does a pretty terrible job with the notes on these poems-- she'll quote every letter in which Bishop ever mentioned a palm tree, but won't tell readers that the "Cal" mentioned in a poem is Robert Lowell-- but it's still a valuable collection for any Bishop fan.

[Frank Romagosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent collection .. to read and read and read, and to discover over and over, Elizabeth Bishop is essential, this collection is an album of images and a book of her art, a time passed, and which still remains!

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Elizabeth Bishop - sometimes I feel she's speaking with my own voice. But I'm not much of a scholar of her works. This is a lovely collection of her unpublished works alongside her notes - and it has inspired me to read more of her published poems.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find this strangely compelling, even though I am against pulling together someone's sketches and half-finished poems after they are dead.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

only feeds my bishop addiction more!

[Kate Levin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really I just liked it because it shows the evolution of "One Art," 16 drafts or something. It's cool to see it progress from these rough scribbles to its remarkable finished form, and encouraging.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting illustrations and new old poems in here, there's even one about Baltimore and its shiny rowhome stoops.

[Twinkiedefense · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't know how I feel about this book...she did NOT WANT us to see all this stuff. And yet, she's my GIRL. I just couldn't resist it.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was clearly not intended for publication by Bishop. There were a couple of gems but it was really not worth plodding through such a big book to find them.

[Ollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quirky, but cool.

[Carolyn Aguila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful!

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable collection for fans of Bishop's work. The notes are extensive and insightful.

[Miami University Libraries]

King Library (2nd floor) | PS3503.I785 E34 2006