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Poems
A Boston Globe BestPoetry Book of 2011
This is the definitive edition of the work of one of America’s greatest poets, increasingly recognized as one of the greatest English-language poets of the twentieth century, loved by readers and poets alike. Bishop’s poems combine humor and sadness, pain and acceptance, and observe nature and lives in perfect miniaturist close-up. The...more
This is the definitive edition of the work of one of America’s greatest poets, increasingly recognized as one of the greatest English-language poets of the twentieth century, loved by readers and poets alike. Bishop’s poems combine humor and sadness, pain and acceptance, and observe nature and lives in perfect miniaturist close-up. The...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
February 1st 2011
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published May 1st 1969)
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I really wanted to like this collection. I did enjoy One Art:
One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next...more
One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next...more
6 likes · like · see review
view 2 comments
Elizabeth, I liked some of your poems, found some of them beautiful, or touching or delicately structured. Not especially profound, but you don't strike me as having invested much in the profound, rather the fleeting, the unintended and the suddenly honest. You also did not speak often of love, except perhaps in your manuscript poems, which you hid and which did not escape until after your death. So much for the love poems. They were some or your best, by the way-- if only you had been bolder a...more
It seems absurd to write a review of a book like this, but the one-star "I had to read this in class and I don't like poetry" reviews made me so sad that I had to put something here.
Bishop's poems are tender, funny, prickly, utterly observant, deeply wise. And if you learn nothing about her personal life from her poems (compared with, say Robert Lowell or Sylvia Plath) yet she is undeniably herself alone in her poems: "you are an I,/you are an Elizabeth,/you are one of them." She demands to be...more
Bishop's poems are tender, funny, prickly, utterly observant, deeply wise. And if you learn nothing about her personal life from her poems (compared with, say Robert Lowell or Sylvia Plath) yet she is undeniably herself alone in her poems: "you are an I,/you are an Elizabeth,/you are one of them." She demands to be...more
Elizabeth Bishop's childhood was typical of that experienced by many great artists: it was suffused with tragedy. Her father died before she had her first birthday. Her mother was mentally ill. As a result, Elizabeth spent her formative years living with various relatives, some of whom were not kind or friendly to her. This may account for the cool, impersonal style of much of her poetry, most of which is collected in this very good book.
Elizabeth Bishop's poetry demonstrates her great percepti...more
Elizabeth Bishop's poetry demonstrates her great percepti...more
Book 39 Complete Poems - Elizabeth Bishop
I must say that I have a love hate relationship with poetry, I like some poetry but I hate a lot of it ! For me it is the snobbery that surrounds the world of poetry that I don't like. Personally I love to be able to read a poem without having to have a degree in the history and workings of poetry, if a poem doesn't make sense then I don't like it. And I don't want to know about iambics or any of that stuff to be able to appreciate a piece of writing. I h...more
I must say that I have a love hate relationship with poetry, I like some poetry but I hate a lot of it ! For me it is the snobbery that surrounds the world of poetry that I don't like. Personally I love to be able to read a poem without having to have a degree in the history and workings of poetry, if a poem doesn't make sense then I don't like it. And I don't want to know about iambics or any of that stuff to be able to appreciate a piece of writing. I h...more
1 like · like · see review
This was a high school assignment I was not fond of at the time; picked it up again this week in the hope that I had merely been prejudiced at the time. It was a mostly-vain hope.
I do not understand why one of the blurbs on the back claims that Bishop is a great poet. There are maybe half a dozen pieces in here which could possibly justify that claim, and while that is half a dozen more than many people ever write, I would like to think that true greatness demands a little more than that. Like i...more
I do not understand why one of the blurbs on the back claims that Bishop is a great poet. There are maybe half a dozen pieces in here which could possibly justify that claim, and while that is half a dozen more than many people ever write, I would like to think that true greatness demands a little more than that. Like i...more
1 like · like · see review
Elizabeth Bishop is one of the top five poets writing in English of the 20th C. She writes poems of such simplicity and beauty, about her hard childhood in Nova Scotia, and her time in Brazil with her girlfriend, which ended in suicide and heartbreak. The emotion in the poems is always controlled by perfect language and images that retain their freshness.
Some of my favorite poems are "First Death in Nova Scotia", "At the Fish-houses", "Cape Breton", "One Art", and "Manuelzinho"
Some of my favorite poems are "First Death in Nova Scotia", "At the Fish-houses", "Cape Breton", "One Art", and "Manuelzinho"
the poetry of elizabeth bishop is as good as anything written in any language. she is a true master of the art of saying things. i could not be more impressed by a writer. she is the gold standard of clever.
her poems are heartbreaking and sublime. the language is utterly gorgeous and hypnotic. her honesty as a human being is staggering. her poems are both surprisingly simple and unmistakeably complicated.
superlatives in book reviews are rarely credible, but with elizabeth bishop, one is not wel...more
her poems are heartbreaking and sublime. the language is utterly gorgeous and hypnotic. her honesty as a human being is staggering. her poems are both surprisingly simple and unmistakeably complicated.
superlatives in book reviews are rarely credible, but with elizabeth bishop, one is not wel...more
Oct 28, 2010
Jenna
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
english-language-poetry
Very few Bishop poems touch overtly on the subject of romantic love. The following poem does, and it tugs on one's heartstrings as deftly as any Lucinda Williams country song:
"Insomnia"
The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.
By the Universe deserted,
SHE'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a...more
"Insomnia"
The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.
By the Universe deserted,
SHE'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a...more
Elizabeth Bishop - One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The a...more
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The a...more
She writes the cleanest lines in the history of American poetry. I rarely say things like this, but this book really should be on the shelf of anyone who loves reading, even if you don't love reading poetry.
1 like · like · see review
When I feel down, I like to read 'Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore' - my spirits immediately lift at the precisely-worded, cheeky-yet-devout vision of Moore flying over the Brooklyn Bridge - without a plane of course but with 'a black capeful of butterfly wings and bon-mots.'. Or I might turn to 'The Armadillo' which is so sad yet perfect, not a word too many or out of place, or 'The Moose', that surprising female moose whose otherwordlyness transforms a bus journey. Because that is what Bishop...more
I come back to this one again and again. I think I first read Bishop in a poetry class in college. I remember "Sestina" and "The Moose," her poem for friend Robert Lowell. So many favorites in this collection -- they are poems that shake me gently, wind their way into places inside the pit of my stomach, in my chest behind my breastbone, and loose something in my heart that bubbles up into my throat and makes me want to laugh and cry with the sadness and beauty of the world.
When things get too b...more
When things get too b...more
Nov 24, 2011
Diann Blakely
added it
What would Elizabeth Bishop have thought about National Poetry month? An early advocate for the art's democratization, the late poet William Matthews, reminded practitioners that “the work of the body becomes a body of work.” Nothing of poets lives on except their lines, and I think Bishop would be have been in accord with both his work in the community and his words.
Even if I'm wrong, memorable lines are bewilderingly ubiquitous in FSG’s centennial birthday gift of Bishop’s POEMS. Enough has be...more
Even if I'm wrong, memorable lines are bewilderingly ubiquitous in FSG’s centennial birthday gift of Bishop’s POEMS. Enough has be...more
love.
one of my favorites:
Seascape
This celestial seascape, with white herons got up as angels,
flying high as they want and as far as they want sidewise
in tiers and tiers of immaculate reflections;
the whole region, from the highest heron
down to the weightless mangrove island
with bright green leaves edged neatly with bird-droppings
like illumination in silver,
and down to the suggestively Gothic arches of the mangrove roots
and the beautiful pea-green back-pasture
where occasionally a fish jumps...more
one of my favorites:
Seascape
This celestial seascape, with white herons got up as angels,
flying high as they want and as far as they want sidewise
in tiers and tiers of immaculate reflections;
the whole region, from the highest heron
down to the weightless mangrove island
with bright green leaves edged neatly with bird-droppings
like illumination in silver,
and down to the suggestively Gothic arches of the mangrove roots
and the beautiful pea-green back-pasture
where occasionally a fish jumps...more
In the May 14, 2009 issue of The London Review of Books, Colm Tóibín writes that in the poems of Elizabeth Bishop, "Description was a desperate way of avoiding self-description; looking at the world was a way of looking out from the self." He goes on to say that "The fact that the world was there was both enough and far too little for Bishop. Its history or her own history were beside the point." Given that the lyric mode† has become the dominant mode of contemporary poetry (as opposed to epic o...more
EB is my "remarkable poet," a past mind that understands me without ever having known me. She belongs to the school of Confessionalism (touted by the likes of the famous Robert Lowell), and I believe she to be the most illustrious, gifted, of all of them. Even for those not into poetry, Bishop's exploration of travel and natural motifs, in relation to her own internal struggle, are worth reading.
An example:
"Think of the long trip home.
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?
Where shou...more
An example:
"Think of the long trip home.
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?
Where shou...more
a big thing on the poetry scene was the publication of 120 unpublished poems from elizabeth bishop's notebooks, including one she crossed out. helen vendler, our most divine critic, denounced it as a complete betrayal of bishop's triumphantly sparse enterprise (89 poems), while the ny times critic said that since bishop is a 20th century figure on a par with shakespeare and hendrix, these cullings are of inestimable interest and usefulness, so that makes it ok.
it's fine to publish them. she is e...more
Elizabeth Bishop changed my view of poetry. I knew I liked the stuff, but I had never read anyone who made the writing of such complicated verses seem so easy. Her poems are facile on some levels, and yet the form she employs don't seem to constrain her--a feat which is impossible for all but a few. I read much of this anthology in my senior seminar as an English major in college, along with Emily Dickenson and Marianne Moore. Elizabeth was by far my favorite. She's a modern woman poet, with a l...more
This time I gave Bishop a real chance but I still don't really like the work. It's not the overwriting and the endless description so much as the lack of angling that gets me. The lack of saying what she means. The lack of carving at the heart of things (except for Insomnia where she nails the heart to the wall). At times, I do like, however, the mood she creates through narrative (i.e. The Moose, At The Fishhouses).
Also, there are some choices in her Portuguese translations that pretty much b...more
Also, there are some choices in her Portuguese translations that pretty much b...more
Although Bishop's catalog is vast, this particular volume offers an excellent overview of her work. Bishop makes writing seem like breathing, yet her word choice is acute. She sees everything clearly and in harmony, and has a vivid enthusiasm for the "what" in her work. As with any poet, however, all this can be exacerbated by the way one reads, which is what makes true literature in general and poetry in particular worth the time.
This book is filled with incredible poems that I take every opportunity to reread. I was exposed to Bishop's work in High School, but got the opportunity to read her Complete Poems in College. She makes me laugh with poems like Large Bad Picture and then cry with North Haven, her tribute to poet and friend Robert Lowell.
Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily
like a dog looking for a place to sleep in,
listen to it growling.
Think how they must look now, the mangrove keys
lying out there unresponsive to the lightning
in dark, coarse-fibred families,
where occasionally a heron may undo his head,
shake up his feathers, make an uncertain comment
when the surrounding water shines.
Think of the boulevard and the little palm trees
all stuck in rows, suddenly revealed
as fistfuls of limp fish-skeletons.
It is raining ther...more
like a dog looking for a place to sleep in,
listen to it growling.
Think how they must look now, the mangrove keys
lying out there unresponsive to the lightning
in dark, coarse-fibred families,
where occasionally a heron may undo his head,
shake up his feathers, make an uncertain comment
when the surrounding water shines.
Think of the boulevard and the little palm trees
all stuck in rows, suddenly revealed
as fistfuls of limp fish-skeletons.
It is raining ther...more
I was very frustrated reading Elizabeth Bishop's poetry. I wanted to like it, I'm supposed to like it, but I found myself bored, unable to focus, and my reading felt labored instead of pleasurable. I liked some individual lines, but rarely liked even an entire poem. Not a popular opinion, despite trying as hard as I could, I just could not bring myself to like this, hence the two stars. I'm very disappointed.
This book should really just be on my "currently-reading" list and remain there permanently. I have never fallen for a poet so quickly and fully. I love her choice of words, her diversity in subject matter, her voice comes through so clearly to me. I have had a harder time with some of the poems that are centered around people or places in Brazil. In general, I like that her poems are not overly cryptic; its pretty easy to know what she's talking about.
2 likes · like · see review
Sep 10, 2007
Trina
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who are dead inside and don't mind it.
Shelves:
poetry
I was prepared not to like Elizabeth Bishop. Nature, traditional form, rhyme all that stuff I'm not terribly fond of in poetry are in evidence. But once I got past that prejudice (Why do I even have that prejudice? I love Wordsworth and Blake, so why can't I abide formalism in contemporary writing?), I found that I really enjoyed the content, much of which forms the locus of my own obsessions: travel, outsiderhood, a sort of gestalt-style vision, ekphrasis, etc. Her verse is distant and observat...more
Caught--the bubble
in the spirit-level,
a creature divided;
and the compass needle
wobbling and wavering,
undecided.
Freed--the broken
thermometer's mercury
running away;
and the rainbow-bird
from the narrow bevel
of the empty mirror,
flying wherever
it feels like, gay!
-"Sonnet," posthumously, 1979; perhaps the summation of her body of poetry's struggle?
in the spirit-level,
a creature divided;
and the compass needle
wobbling and wavering,
undecided.
Freed--the broken
thermometer's mercury
running away;
and the rainbow-bird
from the narrow bevel
of the empty mirror,
flying wherever
it feels like, gay!
-"Sonnet," posthumously, 1979; perhaps the summation of her body of poetry's struggle?
There were poems and forms which I appreciated throughout but overall I found myself trudging through. Mind you, I was in the ER waiting for a doctor to arrive for a number of hours. Personal context can truly make a difference. The best thing that came from my reading were the translations, as I now have some other poets to find at the library.
Praised by Robert Lowell as being able to “make the casual perfect,” Bishop not only established herself as one of the most accessible and talented poets but also defined the major trend in modern poetry.
In fact, her characteristic unassuming voice (a la faux naïveté) became what many poets strive for today. Her poems such as “One Art” or “The Fish” are ubiquitous due to being greatly anthologized, and they remain as paragons of how an artist was able to completely assimilate the traditional for...more
In fact, her characteristic unassuming voice (a la faux naïveté) became what many poets strive for today. Her poems such as “One Art” or “The Fish” are ubiquitous due to being greatly anthologized, and they remain as paragons of how an artist was able to completely assimilate the traditional for...more
I recall her in her black dress, reading to a group of Yale undergrads (and strays like me) in a badly lit classroom. She read well and precisely, these poems of internal explosion. The snow fell outside. I thought it so strange that only 15 or so of us had bothered to stop by. But I was glad I did.
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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 importa...more
More about Elizabeth Bishop...
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 importa...more
Share This Book
“The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster”
—
15 people liked it
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster”
“Each night he must
be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams.
Just as the ties recur beneath his train, these underlie
his rushing brain. He does not dare look out the window,
for the third rail, the unbroken draught of poison,
runs there beside him. He regards it as a disease
he has inherited the susceptibility to. He has to keep
his hands in his pockets, as others must wear mufflers.”
—
5 people liked it
More quotes…
be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams.
Just as the ties recur beneath his train, these underlie
his rushing brain. He does not dare look out the window,
for the third rail, the unbroken draught of poison,
runs there beside him. He regards it as a disease
he has inherited the susceptibility to. He has to keep
his hands in his pockets, as others must wear mufflers.”
