Twentieth century American poetry remains one of the greatest bodies of literature we have. However, among all the luminaries (and there are very many), I continue to return to Elizabeth Bishop as a touchstone and an exemplum of what "poetic greatness" means. It is not just that Bishop never wrote (or, rather, published) a bad poem; it is not just that (as with Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, and Willa Cather) men like her just as much as women; it is not just that her poems resonate with a lesbian erotics that illuminates everything it touches--it is her poetics of modesty, restraint, and ironic compassion is so appealing--and so rare.
There are only three works of literature that affected me so profoundly--and so immediately--that their contents are fused in my memory with the time and place in which I read (or inhaled) them. The first was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which caused me to soak a loaf of bread in water in the kitchen of my grandmother's house); the second was Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, "Experience," which pictured for me the grief in which I swam for two years after the suicide of my older brother, Bradley; and the third was Elizabeth Bishop's late, semi-autobiographical poem, "In the Waiting Room." Here is not the place to discuss the mystical wonder--and horror--of this poem's depiction of a brilliant young girl in Worchester, MA, realizing that she is queer in the midst of a culture of war, repression, poverty, crude patriotism, and reflexive censorship. However, what is remarkable about this collected volume of the prose of Elizabeth Bishop is how it makes one realize that of all those (including Virginia Woolf) who spoke about the new relationships between poetry and prose, Bishop was the one who had the greatest and most startling achievements in this area. Her poems (particularly the later ones) are, on one level, what might be called "plain narratives"--they are also symbolic narratives, etiological narratives, and epiphanic narratives. Anyone who reads, admires, or studies Bishop's poetry must read her prose, which "accompanies" and "companions" her poetry. ( )

suggested by 500 best books by women. i really liked the memory pieces. i liked the short stories but not as well. ( )