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23rd out of 76 books
—
26 voters
Geography III
Geography III, Bishop's final book of poems, first appaered in 1976. It contains such masterpieces as "In the Waiting Room," "The Moose," and "One Art."
Paperback, 50 pages
Published
April 1st 1978
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Worcester dentists: wait for your aunt Consuelo, sit and wait for her, there is snow outside, it was winter, it got dark early, the waiting room was full of grown-up people, there is snow covering your blankets, arctics and overcoats in your dreams, lamps and magazines; she was inside for so long, you are concerned, distracted, the world is spread out, materially spread out, accessible everywhere to your hands; you read National Geographic, you can read, you study the photographs: the interior o...more
Nov 05, 2008
Wayne
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone
Recommended to Wayne by:
my friend Norma
A little unexpected gem sent to me in 1983 for Xmas by my super-poetic Canadian mate Norma, God bless her, and which has always remained a favourite.It contains "One Art" which I have always regretted not having written myself and so grateful that Elizabeth did it so much better than I ever could have managed!!!
It begins:
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 k...more
It begins:
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 k...more
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My feelings are bit skewed, I think, since i read the first half of the book a few weeks ago, and just finished the second half. 'In the Waiting Room' is great, no doubt about it, and Crusoe in England too. The rest of the book? Meh. I suspect that all the deep interpretations of these poems are more about the reader than the poet, and to be honest, whatever it is that I go to poetry for, Bishop doesn't give it to me. The poems are very pretty, no doubt, and have intellectual heft. I'm not sure...more
A collection of poems I like but don't love. "In the Waiting Room" is my favorite of the bunch, but her translation of Octavio Paz' poem for Joseph Cornell titled "Objects & Apparitions" is not far behind. Something about her Crusoe poem keeps me coming back, but at times the poems, no matter how well crafted, fail for me. The "12 O'Clock News" proem--in which she imagines her desktop through the eyes of a tinytinytiny person--is strained and too damn cheeky, and "The End of March" (a "rumin...more
It took me a long time to warm up to Elizabeth Bishop, mainly because her style of poetry is so emphatically not-warm and impersonal and seemingly dispassionate. Over the years, I've come to appreciate that there *is* a kind of cold, slow, subtle beauty inherent in the very meticulousness of her descriptions. And I do wish I had her profound sense of place. Still, I wonder if I'll always prefer poets who pack a stronger emotional punch.....poets whose poems burn and rage like wildfires.....poets...more
One Art...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.
Love 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 art of losing isn't h
As part of my Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell reading preparation, I wanted to read some Elizabeth Bishop. I hadn't read very much of her writing. I finished Geography III: Poems very quickly. There were only ten poems in the whole book. It was 50 pages, but the print was huge.
All of these poems were new to me. I have only read "The Fish" before.
I liked her imagery, and it seemed to me like the poems were written slowly and quietly. None of t...more
All of these poems were new to me. I have only read "The Fish" before.
I liked her imagery, and it seemed to me like the poems were written slowly and quietly. None of t...more
3.5 stars; gave it 4 because I like to think I'll come back to this collection in a few years and 'get' it. For poems like "In the Waiting Room," "The Moose," and "Crusoe in England," this would get a straight-up-on-the-rocks-5-star-rating. Much of the rest, though, was for me filler. And I find "One Art"--though not filler--certainly overrated (don't hurt me).
Someone teach me how to like Bishop more. "In the Waiting Room" is one of my favorite poems ever, but damn, she and I have been off to a...more
Someone teach me how to like Bishop more. "In the Waiting Room" is one of my favorite poems ever, but damn, she and I have been off to a...more
I decided it was time to pull this off the shelf again. This is quite a short book to read, as it consists of only ten poems, but that doesn't make it any less worthy of a person's time.
This particular collection leaves out some of Bishop's most famous poems ("The Fish," "Sestina"), but includes some of her most profound ("One Art," "The Moose"). The idea is that these poems are global, as they range from that unknown island in "Robinson Crusoe" all the way up to Canada in "The Moose" and back...more
This particular collection leaves out some of Bishop's most famous poems ("The Fish," "Sestina"), but includes some of her most profound ("One Art," "The Moose"). The idea is that these poems are global, as they range from that unknown island in "Robinson Crusoe" all the way up to Canada in "The Moose" and back...more
I was expecting to NOT like this book, as my previous knowledge of Bishop's work was limited to the poem "One Art". The poem is clever, but never really knocked me out. However, Geography III is filled to the brim with gems: "The Moose", "The End of March", "Objects & Apparitions" and "Crusoe in England". Bishop is certainly clever in all these poems, but also restrained, concise and detailed. A great book!
Recently Leatha Kendrick mentioned that Elizabeth Bishop's Geography III was a seminal work of modern poetry.
I've read Bishop sort of here and there, the biggies: "One Art," "The Moose," "In the Waiting Room" (all three of which are in Geography III). And I recently bought a copy of her complete poems. But a collected is a different critter from a collection.
So -- because I was going off on this residency in hopes immersing myself in poetry for a week -- of writing poetry of my own -- I thought...more
I've read Bishop sort of here and there, the biggies: "One Art," "The Moose," "In the Waiting Room" (all three of which are in Geography III). And I recently bought a copy of her complete poems. But a collected is a different critter from a collection.
So -- because I was going off on this residency in hopes immersing myself in poetry for a week -- of writing poetry of my own -- I thought...more
One of a handful of books I can't quite bring myself to sell or give away, and I have the original hardcover first edition, somewhat rare and lovely in its spareness. "The Moose" and "One Art" are masterpieces but every poem in its rocks: lovely, insightful and so so so transparent. Just read them.
I read it in a car headed north. Where was I going? Providence? Wakefield? Vermont? I don't remember, but I do remember reading "Objects & Apparitions" at a rest stop in New Jersey drinking coffee out of one of those especially bulky styrofoam cups only Dunkin' Donuts uses. Well.
If you read these in her Collected Poems, I recommend you ENCOUNTER them here. Her use of white space is impeccable. They breathe. Plus, on the back cover you get a wonderful testimonial by John Ashberry which explains her greatness better than anything else I have ever read.
Who could not love Bishop's "Crusoe in England" or the descriptions in "The Moose" (the woods described as "moonlight and mist / caught in them like lamb's wool / on bushes in a pasture.")? And, of course, there is the brilliant "12 O'Clock News."
I've always loved this book, and these other Elizabeth Bishop poems, from her other collections:
Sestina
Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore
Little Exercise
The Fish
The Filling Station
Sestina
Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore
Little Exercise
The Fish
The Filling Station
I decided Elizabeth Bishop is really hit and miss for me. Some things, I loved; others didn't do much for me. The book is worth checking out, though, just to read "12 O'Clock News," which was so hilariously clever (and silly) I wished I'd thought of it myself!
Quién define la cultura? Debemos sentirnos atrapados en la ventana o es sólo nuestra perspectiva la que está encerrada? (In the Waiting Room). Cuáles son los espacios en blanco de los libros que debemos llenar, y cómo? (Crusoe in England)Estas son algunas de las preguntas que este libro nos brinda en forma brillante.
Who defines culture? Should we feel trapped in a window or is our perspective the one that is frame? (In the Waiting Room). Which are the blanks that we might fill in the books, and...more
Who defines culture? Should we feel trapped in a window or is our perspective the one that is frame? (In the Waiting Room). Which are the blanks that we might fill in the books, and...more
Bishop is a good poet. This is a short collection. It includes "One Art," one of my favorite poems of all time. I'd suggest reading it, just to get into the last book that Bishop, considered by some to be the best poet of the last 50 years, wrote.
"One Art" is the one that gets in all the anthologies, but I enjoyed "The Moose" too.
Jun 11, 2009
Ehbluemle Bluemle
added it
Geography III: Poems by Elizabeth Bishop (1978)
so many distances covered in so few pages
King Library (2nd floor) | PS3503.I785 G4
Incredible. She's my favorite. As is "One Art."
Read #1
Started on April 1, 2013
Finished on April 3, 2013
Started on April 1, 2013
Finished on April 3, 2013
One Art. Yes.
read
My favorite poem of hers, "Crusoe in England" is here, but the rest ain't no slouch either.
I wanted to like this more.
Reading only the section entitled Geography III in Bishop's larger collected works felt like cheating to me, but I have to be selective because my book list is long and deep. Many of the poems in this volume are classics and rightly so. Robinson Crusoe in England is one I've read but hadn't stuck with me like One Art has. I'm glad I reread this.
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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
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“Dreams were the worst. Of course I dreamed of food
and love, but they were pleasant rather
than otherwise. But then I'd dream of things
like slitting a baby's throat, mistaking it
for a baby goat. I'd have
nightmares of other islands
stretching away from mine, infinities
of islands, islands spawning islands,
like frogs' eggs turning into polliwogs
of islands, knowing that I had to live
on each and every one, eventually,
for ages, registering their flora,
their fauna, their geography.”
—
7 people liked it
More quotes…
and love, but they were pleasant rather
than otherwise. But then I'd dream of things
like slitting a baby's throat, mistaking it
for a baby goat. I'd have
nightmares of other islands
stretching away from mine, infinities
of islands, islands spawning islands,
like frogs' eggs turning into polliwogs
of islands, knowing that I had to live
on each and every one, eventually,
for ages, registering their flora,
their fauna, their geography.”
