Session 24 - Elizabeth Bishop
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The early poetry of Elizabeth Bishop is discussed. The poet is positioned as an endpoint to modernism, and in her essay "Dimensions for a Novel," a response to Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent," Bishop is shown to transfer Eliot's concept of "tradition" to the construction of literary works. The poem "The Map" is presented as an expression of Bishop's early thinking about geography and world-making. "The Gentleman of Shalott" is considered as a contemplation of the process of perception. Finally, "Sandpiper" is read as a meditation on the challenges of locating coherence in a shifting world.
ENGL 310: Modern Poetry
| Lecture 24 - Elizabeth Bishop |
Overview:
The early poetry of Elizabeth Bishop is discussed. The poet is positioned as an endpoint to modernism, and in her essay "Dimensions for a Novel," a response to Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent," Bishop is shown to transfer Eliot's concept of "tradition" to the construction of literary works. The poem "The Map" is presented as an expression of Bishop's early thinking about geography and world-making. "The Gentleman of Shalott" is considered as a contemplation of the process of perception. Finally, "Sandpiper" is read as a meditation on the challenges of locating coherence in a shifting world.
Reading assignment:
Elizabeth Bishop: "The Map," "The Imaginary Iceberg," "The Gentleman of Shalott," "The Man-Moth," "Miracle for Breakfast," "The Weed," "The Unbeliever," "The Monument," "Florida," "Roosters," "The Fish," "A Cold Spring," "Over 2000 Illustrations," "At the Fishhouses," "Cape Breton"
Class lecture:
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Credits:
"The Map," 1935 "Sandpiper," 1962 and excerpts from: "The Gentleman of Shalott," 1936. Copyright (c) 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
This material is not licensed under a Creative Commons license. Users must seek permission to use such third-party materials directly from the publisher or estate, as appropriate.
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