Geography III

In central Ohio
somewhere east of the capital
I went with E.B.
to keep an appointment
and she spoke to me of many things:
We're all "in the waiting room"
was one of them,
an aside that I handled with fair
words of praise.
Bristle not when I bring up
John Livingston Lowes
who is said to have said
"Free verse may be written as very beautiful prose;
prose may be written as very beautiful free verse.
Which is which?"
this de-constructor of Xanadu who
plumbed Coleridge's creative fountain,
giving double-edged acclaim.
Reading her book of poems I felt
a "sweet sensation of joy" and that is all
there is to it.

My feelings are bit skewed, I think, since i read the first half of the book a few weeks ago, and just finished the second half. 'In the Waiting Room' is great, no doubt about it, and Crusoe in England too. The rest of the book? Meh. I suspect that all the deep interpretations of these poems are more about the reader than the poet, and to be honest, whatever it is that I go to poetry for, Bishop doesn't give it to me. The poems are very pretty, no doubt, and have intellectual heft. I'm not sure what they lack- maybe an appropriate level of (British style) irony? Maybe my problem is rather what's in them: descriptions of art-works, descriptions of mildly surrealistic landscapes (or maybe 'landscapes'). I read a review which praised show more Bishop's 'sense of place,' and that might sum it up. Lacking much of a sense of place myself, I can't recognize it in others. So it's all my fault that I'm not into Bishop, but I think I can live with it. show less

Interesting poems, long for Bishop. It's a short collection, but the focus on space/geography is interesting. For anyone who enjoyed the story of Robinson Crusoe, there's a great poem based on him as well. Overall, worth a read.

Elizabeth Bishop, I love you! My favorite poem in this collection: "In the Waiting Room".

Stunning on so many levels.