Elizabeth Bishop

1. Elizabeth Bishop By: Stephanie Reed

2. Her Life: • Born on February 8, 1911 • Worcester, Massachusets • Father died before her first birthday • Mother committed to mental hospital when Elizabeth was 5 from nervous collapses • Lived in Great Village, Nova Scotia from the age of 3-6 with her Mother’s side of the family- Then moved to Worcester and Boston with her Father’s Side of the family

3. Schooling • Attended Walnut Hill during High School • Attended Vassar for 4 years of College • Was introduced to Marianne Moore by librarian • Good Friend for many years • Appeared in Vassar Undergrad. Magazine and helped found it • Thought about degree in Medicine • Moore encouraged her Poetry writing • Later became poet in residence @ Harvard

4. Inspirations • George Herbert • Gerard Manly Hopkins • Marianne Moore • Robert Lowell

5. Publications • Published Poetry in Moore’s Anthology • Trial Balances 1935 • Wrote her 1st mature poems in NY • The Map and The Man-Moth • Rejected by many NY publishers • Introduced to Robert Lowell • 2nd Volume of Poetry in 1955 • Cold Spring • Questions for Travel 1969 • Final Volume of Poetry 1976 • Geography III

6. Relationships: • Lesbian relationship • Lota de Macedo Soares • Great friends (not sure if relationship) • Marianne Moore, Alice Methfessel

7. Travels: • Worcester • Nova Scotia • Boston • New York • Europe (3 years) • Key West (1938) • Brazil (18 years) – Became sick on trip to S.A • United States

8. Writing Styles • Spent many years on one poem • Passion for accuracy • Expressed and re-created things in her own world • Canada, USA, Europe and Brazil • Wrote about: • Estrangements as a woman, lesbian, orphan, traveler, hospitalized asthmatic, and a sufferer of alcoholism and depression

9. Elizabeth Bishop: “ I’m not interested in big-scale work as such. Something needn’t be large to be good.”