Elizabeth Bishop: Selected Prose, Poems, and Letters is a radiant collection by Elizabeth Bishop. The collection is immensely touching and full of unwavering intelligence. Before Bishop’s acclaimed fame as one of the greatest poets of our time, well-renowned poets showed their admiration for her rigor, fierceness, intimacy, detailed observations, and limitless imagination.
The poet showcases her originality throughout the collection as she writes so passionately exploring her adventurous and perfected nature. From classic publications such as North & South, Questions of Travel, Geography III, to A Cold Spring, Bishop attempts to stay as grounded as she can to reality.
The authentic take on real-life experiences enables Bishop’s work to connect with humanity on an intimate level that was seen as a breakthrough in the world of literature at the time of publication. Bishop’s work is not without a dark aspect that highlights a personal battle that she might’ve been going through while writing some works in the collection.
The collection’s take on death is almost existential as she seems to come to terms with her existence. Bishop attempts to find some universal meaning with her collection as she juggles with the idea of transcendence. This could be seen as a way in which she consoled herself from feeling futile at the mercy of life and death.
Through her works, Bishop is seen as highly deliberate and critical. She avoids writing in a confessional style despite her life being one for the books. Her wounds are enclosed in complex and manipulative forms of poetry. Bishop preferred to keep her words in great ambiguity as she chooses to comment on life more broadly and diversely.
