For the library assignment, I chose to study Elizabeth Bishop, and the different analysis and critique of her work we can find in our own library. The first piece I selected, called Elizabeth Bishop and the Music of Literature by Angus Clearhorn highlights the relationship that Elizabeth Bishop had to music, and how that influenced her work. The author goes on to write about how, from the sounds of the sea to Brazilian sambas, Elizabeth Bishop’s works were full of sound, most importantly the sound above all else being the voice of not only the poet, but of the reader as well. This analysis of her work helps one understand the rhythm of her poetry, and even why she rhymes when she does. The second piece I discovered was called Elizabeth Bishop and Translation by Mariana Machova, where the author wrote on the impact that literal translation from one language to another can affect a text, as well as the meaning behind the kind of language Bishop uses in her text. Machova results in the conclusion translation is adaption of themes and words, but also that a certain type of poetry can be analyzed through translation, providing a unique outlook as Machova pushes back on the idea that all writing is, in essence, translation from the mind to words, as she feels that is best left to philosophy. Next, in Elizabeth Bishop and the New Deal: Queer Poetics and the Welfare State in Key West. by Eric Strand, he states that Bishop highlighted the role of a poet in society, as well as reimagining the poet’s relationship with the national government, concluding that, had Bishop been able to publish a certain volume of Florida poems titled Bone Key, that those writings might have been some of the strongest support for Roosevelt’s New Deal by any writer of the time, a fascinating fact that truly pulls back the mist on Bishop’s life and opinions. In Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore : The Psychodynamics of Creativity by Joanne Feit Diehl is a very interesting dive into the so-called literary mother of Bishop in Marianne Moore, and how she had a remarkably complex relationship with Moore ranging between envy and gratitude, further highlighting how Moore not only influenced her writing but her thinking as well. The book Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop by Anne Stevenson quite literally looks at five pieces by Elizabeth Bishop, and then critically analyses each one, as well as providing both a timeline of her life as well as maps of the regions she lived in, truly helping illustrate a good understanding of her life.

Sources Cited

Cleghorn, Angus. Elizabeth Bishop and the Music of Literature. Palgrave Pivot, 2019.

Diehl, Joanne Feit. Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore: The Psychodynamics of Creativity. Princeton University Press, 1993.

MACHOVA, MARIANA. Elizabeth Bishop and Translation. LEXINGTON Books, 2019.

Stevenson, Anne. Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop. Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2006.

Strand, Eric. “Elizabeth Bishop and the New Deal: Queer Poetics and the Welfare State in Key West.” Twentieth-Century Literature, vol. 68, no. 2, 2022, pp. 199–224., https://doi.org/10.1215/0041462x-9808104.