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Article: Elizabeth Bishop: from coterie to canon.
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Time to plant tears, says the almanac.--"Sestina"
"Oh, please," Elizabeth Bishop once told me, "Let's not talk about poetry." And that afternoon we didn't. But now, thirty years later, my friend and teacher is no longer here to stop me with one of her firm looks. So, with apologies to Miss Bishop's shade, I shall proceed, though I know she would have been both impatient and embarrassed to read an essay in her honor. And it is my intention to honor her--not with a general panegyric but what I hope is a dispassionate and detailed look at the reasons behind her current popularity.
My subject is how Elizabeth Bishop came--slowly and surprisingly--to be ...