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Elizabeth Bishop was born on the 8th of February, 1911 in Massachusetts. She was an only child and her father died when she was just 8 months old. Her mother soon had a mental breakdown caused by the bereavement and was hospitalised five years later. Bishop never saw her mother again.
She was looked after for a while by her mother’s parents and was very happy there. However, after a while, her father’s parents took her to live with them. This was a very unhappy period in her life, ended when her aunt Maude took her to live with her in Revere, Massachusetts.
 
When in school, Bishop was a talented painter and musiciasn as well as a writer. In 1938, she moved to Florida and her first collection of poetry, “North And South” was published to great acclaim.
In 1951, she moved to Brazil and met her partner, Lota De Macedo. They stayed together until Lota’s death in 1967.
After this, Bishop moved to San Fransisco for a year and taught at Harvard University. She died in Boston in 1979.

Here is some brief information about the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop that is on your course.

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More detailed information can be found further down the page.

The Fish.

In this poem, the speaker catches a fish and describes it in great detail before letting it go.

 At The Fishhouses.

The speaker is at the fish houses, where the fish that has been caught is stored. The speaker describes all that is there, such as an old man working and a seal.

The Bight.

 The speaker is simply watching what is going on in the bay, listening and seeing the water and all that is about it.

 The Prodigal.

This poem, is about the Prodigal Son, who, in the bible, left his home but eventually came home. The poem is about what life might have been like for him before he decided to go home.

 Filling Station.

This poem is about a dirty run down petrol station. The speaker describes it in a lot of detail and then notices that it is also someone’s home.

 Questions Of Travel.

The speaker is in Brazil. It is raining heavily and she starts wondering why people choose to go travelling.

 The Armadillo.

The speaker is again in Brazil, watching the celebration for the shortest day of the year; five balloons are released to float across the sky.

 Sestina.

A child and her grandchildren look at an almanac and the child draws while the grandmother makes tea.

 First Death In Nova  Scotia.

This is a poem about the funeral of her cousin Arthur who died when Bishop was only 4.

In The Waiting Room.

The poet writes here about waiting for her aunt in the waiting room of a dentist’s surgery.