How Does Elizabeth Bishop's Life Affect Her Work?

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seemed filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.” (One Art, 1-4, Bishop) Elizabeth Bishop, a famous poet during the Modernist Era, wrote many popular poems including, “Sandpiper.” Bishop’s tragic childhood and role models, her birthplace and the era of selective writing in which she was born into affected the style and messages in her writing. Elizabeth Bishop endured a devastating childhood in the Modernist Era, in which she wrote “Sandpiper”, a poem that shows the struggle and concentration it takes to reach ones dreams. Bishop had a rather rough upbringing, her series of misfortunate events started on February 8th, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Bishop was
born to William Thomas BIshop and Gerturde May Bulmer. Eight Months after Bishop’s birth, her father suddenly passed away of Bright’s disease. Leading on this series of misfortunate, her Mother became mentally unstable.
She was forced to go to an institution in 1916. After her Mother’s institutionalization, Bishop was forced to go live with her grandparents in Great Village, Nova Scotia. Bishop mentions this place numerous times in her writing. Bishop’s mother was kept in the institution until her death in 1934. Bishop was never reunited with her mother. These events greatly affected her writing style. Another Influence on Bishop’s writing style would be the influences of two poets, Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell, who both had substantially different writing styles. “Moore trove to be what Bishop described as, “Fundamentally]...[a poet] who has bought a brilliant precision to poetic language by meticulous conversatism.. [and] maintaining the ancestral, ‘out-of-date’ virtues of American culture” (Ribeiro 15) .The other major influence that Bishop had was Robert Lowell, “had.. embraced poetry in the grand style, thinking in terms of the largest gesture, history and politics’ and, more famously, the poet who started what Bishop herself called :That nonsense of confessional poetry’” (Millier 198 and Schiller 22). Because of the two extremely different points of views, there was a
consistent tension towards their opinion on poetry. Because of this increasing tension, Bishop created her own style of writing that satisfied both authors. Elizabeth Bishop was an influence on other poets in her era because many poets looked up to the metaphors she used to state the message she wanted to be heard. Elizabeth Bishop was self conscious and hardworking as displayed in, “what I’m about to say, I’m afraid, will sound like ELIZABETH KNOWS BEST… I can’t seem to bring myself to give up the set form, which I’m afraid you think fills the poem with redundancies… maybe i can explain it” (One Art 69). This quote shows how Bishop was afraid to show the confidence she had in her poems in saying that she knew they were good. Elizabeth Bishop won several awards over her lifetime including: The Pulitzer prize for poetry 1956, The United States poet laureate 1949, The Neustadt International prize for Literature 1976, The National Book Award for Poetry 1970, the Guggenheim Fellowship for creative Arts, United States and Canada 1947, and the National Book Critics circle Award for Poetry 1976. Elizabeth Bishop passed away after leading a successful and meaningful life on October 6, 1979 in Boston, Massachusetts. “Modernism is a term designated much of the literature written from 1910-1940, while modernist is a term designating the time period in which the modern democratic state, science, and an industrial economy developed.” (Faculty.gvsu.edu) Elizabeth Bishop was one of the outstanding poets to write in this era. The Modernist era was the turning point from writing only about what the reader wanted to hear, but instead to writing the truth; that hardships do happen. This era influenced Bishops writing by the fact of how her childhood struggles fit into the era. Bishop had to face many hardships on her own and did not experience the everyday childhood that most kids would have. Therefore, adding to the impact of struggle and striving for a single goal mentioned in her poem, “Sandpiper.” Another Era that would suit BIshop very well is the Naturalism era. Bishop uses the image of animals to represent herself as she points out the message she sends. Using the images of animals, and to have them reflect on herself is how she differed from the other writers in this era. Bishop was an inspiration to young writers, they looked up to her use of metaphors and relating the situation to her own life. Bishop then used her talent from writing in this era, to create ‘Sandpiper’.“The world is a mist. And then the world is minute and vast and clear.” (Sandpiper 13 and 14) This quote came from one of BIshop’s most famous pieces, “Sandpiper” written in 1962. Many see this poem as, “Self-mocking, for the bird is a metaphor for Bishop, it’s vision like her own… Like the sandpiper, Bishop is an obsessive observer.” ( 37, The oxford companion to women's writing). The poem represents Bishop’s observations and how closely she looks at details. Bishop, in a way, uses the sandpiper to represent herself. Even though the sandpiper walks along a beach daily, no small detail could be taken for granted. The line, “A student of Blake” ( 4) is meant to be taken as a joke, that would be later explained in the poem with the line, “He stares at the dragging grains” (12). This line is showing how the bird stares pointlessly at the sand as if looking for a secret or miracle to happen. This quote is to be taken from one of Blake’s famous lines. She tries to wrap up this poem, by implying that everyone is looking at the smallest details of everything hoping for a huge miracle or dream that they’ve been wishing to happen. In the poem “Sandpiper” Elizabeth Bishop uses imagery and irony to set the mental appearance and to voice the message she wants heard enclosed in the poem.
Bishop uses the literary technique of irony to demonstrate the situations in which the sandpiper and herself over finding the one world in which he is searching for. To show the one goal he had to find his perfect world and dream. The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing, states: "the poet is ironic about the birds obsessions: in looking at these details he ignores the great sweeps of seas and land on either side of him." (38) This demonstrates all the distractions and temptations that people face while trying to achieve their goal. Bishop also uses detail, many critics have said that, "Verbs are more prevalent or important in bishops poetry than those of sight" which is legitimately true, Bishop uses verbs to address the specific image that she wants you to see. By using these two techniques, Bishop means to show the distractions that a person faces, and the focus they must have to endure the obstacles set in their way. Bishop perfectly used these techniques to intrigue people in the style she
wrote.
Even through all the hardships and obstacles that Bishop faced as a child, the critisicm from her peers in the modernist era, she became the well-rounded poet she is known for today. Bishop had a traumatizing childhood, and the era in which she wrote in helped her become one of the more successful poets. Bishop used all these obstacles to find the one dream she and the “sandpiper” were looking for.