American Poet – Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Award winner in 1970, and the recipient of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1976.
The following are two of my favorite poems by Elizabeth Bishop.
The Art of Losing
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! My last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
– Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like a disaster.
Form: Villanelle
I Am In Need Of Music
I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!
There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.
The Showers of Blessings 
Thanks for sharing, I love her poetry too!
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You’re welcome. Yes, I really love her poetry!
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https://lyricalviews.wordpress.com please also check
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Love this line “To the subaqueous stillness of the sea”
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Yes, I couldn’t help but quote 2 of her poems.
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Love this pieces…… Like my blog cobblepotpoet for my pieces
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Yes, I wrote a couple Villanelle form poem, and I love music and wrote a few about music. So I picked these two for my post. Thank you for your comment!
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I really enjoyed reading about E. Bishop’s career. And I’m always pleasantly surprised to read favorite poems! Thanks, Miriam!
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Imagine that she had a tough time growing up, didn’t go to high school, eventually got a GED and had to do something before she went to college. Yet she is basically talented in writing and received tons of awards. One poem about a child’s view of death was made into a movie. One more made into movie also! Next week, we’ll read Emily Dickinson. I have her book of collected poems.
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Oh, that is wonderful. I really enjoy learning about the Lives of Poets. Very encouraging to my own writing! 🙂
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Oh yes, she is incredible. Didn’t go to high school, still didn’t stop her from becoming #56 of the 500 top poets! I’m very encouraged by heer!
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Definitely!
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Yes!
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Elizabeth Bishop’s poems were always admired for the purity and precision of her descriptions, and now readers have come to see how, even in her early poems, the attention to external detail reveals an internal emotional realm. Bishop’s early works use surrealism and imagism to create a new reality in which she minimizes the reference to self in poetry, but her later poems become more autobiographical and more concerned with a quest for personal identity.
Caught — the bubble
in the spirit level,
a creature divided;
and the compass needle
wobbling and wavering,
undecided.
Freed — the broken
thermometer’s mercury
running away;
and the rainbow-bird
from the narrow bevel
of the empty mirror,
flying wherever
it feels like, gay!
Elizabeth Bishop
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Yes, A movie was made based on her poem The Death of in Nova Scotia, a child’s view of death. She has the ability to see the emotion, the detail in a smallest drop, and a vivid imagination. Thank you for your quote of her super example of her poems!
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I see it, I love it and….I found you by the link…
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Beautiful poems Miriam and the first one is wonderful because it’s a lesson for our own lives. Thanks for sharing!!!
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You’re welcome! Yes, she was writing from losing things to losing the most closed loved ones!
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beautiful poems! First time encountering her!! The art of losing!!
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She is #56 of the 500 top poets. We read poems written by women in my last poetry class, and I found her. I came across The Art of Losing some time ago!
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Beautiful poems, thanks for sharing 🌺
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I can identify most of it from the first poem. I loved about losing keys. Then it seems like she lost everybody closed to her!
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I like her attitude towards losing although it’s not an easy one to take over 😃
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When my short term memory is not as good as before, I spent time looking for thing. That I understand. It’s hard to lose loved ones!
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the only thing I constantly lose are my glasses – I usually put them somewhere when i need to do make up or change my clothes or whatever else without them on my nose and then I cannot find them. It’s just terrible 😃
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My husband has a pair in each room (4), he still can’t find it when he is in one room. He just say, “It was there and now it’s gone.” Sometimes it’s on the floor, or just slightly off the spot where he usually put it. I usually helped him find it, now I don’t. I can’t jump up every time he lost his glasses. I have a spare in a fixed place in case i can’t find my regular. I usually can find it. I still can trace my steps. 🙂
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😀
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🙂 xoxo
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Look forward to read yours!
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thank you!💕
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You’re welcome!
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