The Complete Poems 1927-1979

Recommended by Sinéad Morrissey, and 1 others. See all reviews

Ranked #64 in Poetry

Elizabeth Bishop was vehement about her art--a perfectionist who didn't want to be seen as a "woman poet." In 1977, two years before her death she wrote, "art is art and to separate writings, paintings, musical compositions, etc., into two sexes is to emphasize values in them that are not art." She also deeply distrusted the dominant mode of modern poetry, one practiced with such detached passion by her friend Robert Lowell, the confessional.

Bishop was unforgiving of fashion and limited ways of seeing and feeling, but cast an even more trenchant eye on her own work. One wishes...

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Sinéad Morrissey She is absolutely true to observed experience and she’s extremely wary of the grand rhetorical gesture. She’s kind of a quiet poet and I think her language is intensely beautiful. (Source)


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