Why Elizabeth Bishop was Considered to be Dickonsonian in Her Writing Style Poet
Elizabeth Bishop was as simple as she was complex. The lucid and uncomplicated
images she created with her seemingly elementary style were anything but; in
fact, the complexity that resides within her characteristically simple prose,
which demonstrate a purity and precision like no other, are known only to those
who can see beyond their faзade. Attention to outer detail and an
unquenchable desire to portray her inner pain, Bishop favored a more simplistic
approach to convey the immense pain and suffering she endured throughout her
life. Utilizing the concepts of surrealism and imagery, as well as incorporating
landscape and geography, the troubled poet cleverly and quite appropriately
captured her audience with images of her own anguish. Only since her death has
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) been generally recognized as one of the four or
five finest American poets of this century. One reason it's taken so long may be
Bishop's low profile: she lived in Brazil for almost half her productive life,
published a slim new book of poems only once a decade, disliked giving public
readings, and participated in none of the "movements" of her time.
Bishop's masterly descriptive powers were the energy she invested in an attempt
to found a poetry not on what had happened to its author, but on what its author
saw and felt and shared with others in the present, whether what was shared was
a set of friends, a series of real or imagined travels, books read, or sights
seen. Bishop, besides being an award winning poet, was a prolific letter writer.
Her friend and publisher, Robert Giroux, has assembled and edited over 500 of
the letters Bishop wrote to her friends from around the world. Emily Dickonson's
closest friends knew she wrote poetry, because she often included poems or lines
from poems in her many letters. What they had no way of appreciating, however,
was the magnitude of her solitary achievement. When she died at 56 her sister
Lavinia found in a drawer over 1,700 poems --- the result of a lifetime's
concentrated work. And since the publication of a small selection of those poems
four years after her death, Dickinson's reputation has risen; today her place
among the very best poets to have written in English is unchallenged. Dickinson
in her early 30's made some tentative attempts to get published, but her work
was far ahead of its time and she did not meet with success. Only seven poems
were published in her lifetime, each changed by editors to suit the day's
standards of rhyme, punctuation and meter. The many similarities between Bishop
and Dickonson are clearly evident in their lives and their writing styles. Both
women were from the New England area; both never married; both wrote about their
pain, suffering and anguish; both were minimally published before their deaths;
both used a simple. easy to read, writing style; and both wrote or incorporated
nature into their themes. The only differences were Emily Dickonson's religion
and isolation, whereas Elizabeth Bishop was well travelled and considered to be
an agnostic. Elizabeth Bishop nearly mirrored Emily Dickonson in every way, and
that is why she is considered to be "Dickonsonian."