The Life of an Award Winning Poet
Elizabeth Bishop was an award winning American poet in the 1900’s. This graduate from Vasser College grew up with her grandparents in Nova Scotia. She was born on February 8, 1911 in Worchester, Massachusetts. When she was little, her mom had a nervous breakdown and her dad died. These terrible events along with the memories of her childhood inspired her to read poetry, and eventually write it.
Many of her poems were written about the memories she had when she was a child, such as the death of her dad and how she was always sick and didn’t have many friends. The poems she wrote were very intense, which is why they were so interesting to read.
Marianne Moore was a poet that greatly influenced Bishop’s poetry. Finally, Bishop got a chance to meet Moore, and these two poets became good friends. Another inspiration of her poetry was Robert Lowell. The way his poetry was written was an inspiring aspect to Bishop. She moved to New York City to publish some of her first work. From New York Bishop headed off to Europe to write more poetry but also to tour the continent. After Europe, Bishop kept traveling and went to Mexico. When she returned from Mexico, she started a teaching carrier at Harvard University.
During Bishop’s career she won many awards for her outstanding poetry. In 1945, she won the Houghton Mifflin Poetry Fellowship award. She received this award for her first published book titled “North and South.” In 1965, she was awarded the National Book Award. In 1969 she won the National Book Critics circle Award for her Poetry. She was the first American woman poet to win the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Bishop was a great poet. Her poems are extraordinarily descriptive and are written about things from animals, places around the world, to fantasies about sleeping on the ceiling and many types of art. Bishop’s creativity and passionate writing style really captures the readers mind making her work magnificent.
List of Published Works
- North & South (poetry) 1946
- Poems: North & South
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Cold Spring (poetry) 1955 - Questions of Travel (poetry) 1965
- Selected Poems (poetry) 1967
- The Ballad of the Burglar of Babylon (poetry) 1968
- The Complete Poems (poetry) 1969
- Geography III (poetry) 1976
- The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 (poetry) 1983