Elizabeth Bishop at work /Eleanor Cook.

Elizabeth Bishop is now recognized as a major twentieth-century poet. She is routinely praised for her mastery of her art, yet all too often the art itself is ignored. Terms like 'quiet perfection' abound but are seldom demonstrated very far. This book looks in detail at how she works. It is meant for both readers and writers, as well as teachers, at every level, from beginning writers to more advanced, from ordinary readers of poetry to specialists. Prose writers and readers should also find useful guidelines. In showing exactly how Bishop's poems work, it suggests how our own writing and reading might learn from her. She has been compared to Vermeer, and as with his paintings, so with her poems. They can create small worlds where every detail matters. Elizabeth Bishop at Work starts with two case studies from her earliest writing, then proceeds chronologically. It shows how she shapes each collection, putting paid to any idea that her collections are random miscellanies. Alternate chapters and chapter sections focus on practical topics, starting with diction ('Elizabeth Bishop's Ordinary Diction - yes, but'), and including rhythm, syntax, genre, tone, allusion, and more. Details previously unnoticed are analyzed, such as the terza rima snaking down one poem, and what it is doing. Many poems are read in detail and their small worlds reconstructed. These details and these worlds are a necessary part of Bishop's wide point of view. They light up her life as an artist as well as her life as a whole.--

Includes bibliographies and index.

Land, water, fire, air: two poems -- Elizabeth Bishop's ordinary diction: yes, but ... -- On the move: from New York to Key West, via France -- Diction on the move -- Rhythms of a cold spring -- Kinds of travel, kinds of home, kinds of poem: questions of travel -- Brief interlude on genre -- Geography III -- Late poems.

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