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"Icebergs behoove the soul
(both being self-made from elements least visible
to see them so; fleshed, fair, erected indivisible."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. The Imaginary Iceberg (l. 31-33). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. The Man-Moth (l. 2). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"The strong sunlight, the wind from the sea,
all the conditions of its existence,
may have flaked off the paint, if ever it was painted,
and made it homelier than it was."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. The Monument (l. 50-53). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. The Prodigal (l. 21). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"his shuddering insights, beyond his control,
touching him. But it took him a long time
finally to make his mind up to go home."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. The Prodigal (l. 26-28). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts,
the pigs' eyes followed him, a cheerful stare,
even to the sow that always ate her young—"
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. The Prodigal (l. 70-74). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"All my life I have lived and behaved very much like [the] sandpiper—just running down the edges of different countries and continents, "looking for something" ... having spent most of my life timorously seeking for subsistence along the coastlines of the world."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet; relocated to Brazil. As quoted in Contemporary Poets, 3rd ed., by James Vinson (1980).
A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, Bishop spent much of her life living reclusively in Brazil. |
"It is what we imagine knowledge to be:
dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free,
drawn from the cold hard mouth
of the world, derived from the rocky breasts
forever, flowing and drawn, and since
our knowledge is historical, flowing, and flown."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. At the Fishhouses (l. 78-83). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"creamy iridescent coats of mail,
with small iridescent flies crawling on them."
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. At the Fishhouses (l. 24-25). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
"Cold dark deep and absolutely clear,
element bearable to no mortal,"
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), U.S. poet. At the Fishhouses (l. 47-48). . .
The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 [Elizabeth Bishop]. (1983) Farrar, Straus and Giroux. |
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