Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop was an American born author of poetry. She served as Poet Laureate from 1949-1950.http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate.html Her poems speak of her difficulties of being an orphan, a lesbian, a traveler without roots, and of her struggles with illness, alcohol, and depression.http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm Before the age of one she lost her father to Bright’s Disease and soon lost her mother to madness.http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/bishop/bio.html She was taken to Novia Scotia to live with her grandparents from the ages of 3-6, but suffered such severe illnesses she could barely walk. Taken by her fathers family to Worcester and Boston, she became stronger and was able to attend Vassar College from which she graduated in 1934. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/7

Being independently wealthy allowed Elizabeth to travel extensively. She visited France, Spain, North Africa, Ireland, and Italy, before finally settling down for a while in Florida. 1951 found her traveling again, this time to Brazil, where illness kept her from continuing in her travels. She fell in love with her nurse, Lota de Macedo Soares, with whom she stayed until Soares committed suicide in 1961. http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/bishop/bio.html

Elizabeth Bishop briefly considered medicine as a career, but was encouraged towards writing poetry by her life long friend and mentor, Marianne Moore. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/7 Her first publication was the inclusion of a few of her poems in an anthology entitled Trial Balances, published in 1935. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm Her few years in Florida produced the four volume work North and South, published in 1946. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm While in Brazil she wrote A Cold Spring which appeared in 1955. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm Many of the poems from Brazil were collected and published in Questions of Travel ten years later. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm Bishop’s final poetry volume, Geography III, was published in 1976, just a few years before her death in 1979.

Bishop also taught at Harvard University from 1970 to 1977. http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Archives/WAuthors/bishop/bio.html

"Something needn't be large to be good." ---Elizabeth Bishop in reference to not being interested in writing large works to her friend Robert Lowell.http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm

"What childishness is it that while there's breath of life in our bodies, we are determined to rush to see the sun the other way around?''--- Elizabeth Bishop from Questions of Travelhttp://books.google.com/books?id=eqia_9U98CUC&pg=PA21&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false/

• Trial Balances
• North and South
• A Cold Spring
• Questions of Travel
• Geography III