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The Complete Poems, 1927-1979

The Complete Poems, 1927-1979

List Price: $15.00
Your Price: $9.69
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Exploring a Great Poet..........
Review: ..............Elizabeth Bishop was a poet who sometimes waited years before completing a poem and submitting it for publication. Her perfectionism, when it came to her craft and to choosing just the right word, is evident as you read through each of her poems. They are all here, from her best known "The Fish" to other favorites like " The Man-Moth", "The Armadillo", "Sandpiper", "Sestina" (my favorite for its surreal imagery), "Crusoe In England", "The Moose" and "In the Waiting Room". Bishop's poetry is incredible because of her original metaphors and her amazing ability to describe a scene with remarkable vividness. Her poetry simply takes me to "another place".

This collection also includes a number of previously uncollected poems, poems written in Bishop's youth and translations of the work of several poets including Octavio Paz. This collection is truly a treasure of poetry from the greatest American female poet of the last century. I urge anyone with an interest in poetry to pick it up!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Canada to Brazil
Review: Bishop writes powerful and poignant poetry. She succeeds especially at embodying emotion in her poetry through the use of complex stylistic devices, as well as a superb command of the English language. I'd give the book five stars, but I think it lacks biographical information on the author which makes her already beautiful verse absolutely brilliant. Bishop has a way of discussing loss so that it is actually felt by even the casual reader, creating intense emotions that do not subside when the book is put down. A must read for fans of Marianne Moore, look especially at poems such as "One Art" and "Paris, 7 a.m." which demonstrate the breadth and depth of her incredible talent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a great soul
Review: eliz. bishop
clearly a kind soul
we shoud all wish to be so gifted
i believe her to be right there w, Roethke and M. More

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the best in american poetry
Review: Elizabeth Bishop is one of the greatest American poets we've ever had--only Frost and perhaps maybe Whitman are more important. She is certainly Emily Dickinson's equal, and in my opinion, a finer poet. When discussing American poetry, Bishop can't be ignored. Her imagery, her use of form, her command over the language is rarely matched, and this collection contains all her work. There's her first book, _North & South_, which is one of the finest volumes of poetry produced. You'll find poems like "The Map," "The Man-Moth," "The Weed," "The Imaginary Iceberg," "Seascape," and the masterful poem, "The Fish." _A Cold Spring_ follows, containing "At the Fishhouse" and "Letter to N.Y." "The Armadillo" (Bishop's poem to Robert Lowell), "Filling Station," "Visits to St. Elizabeths" and "Sestina" (one of the few poems in this form that actually works) follows in _Questions of Travel_. Then there is a selection of uncollected work (1969) before we hit _Geography III_ which contains two of her best poems, "Cruso in England" and "One Art"--which is in my opinion her best poem. The collection rounds out with some more uncollected poems, juvenalia, and some fine translations. Overall, you have an important book by one of our most important poets.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful Poetry!
Review: Elizabeth Bishop is, no doubt, one of literature's finest poets. Her range is Impressive: the fervor of "Roosters"--which gets my vote for, if only it was spoken more, the Best "Spoken Word" poem; the ecstatically desparate, Marvelous "One Art"; "The Weed," with its frightening ending.
She worked tremendously hard on her poems, and they Deserve myriad readers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Poet's Poet
Review: Elizabeth Bishop was a poet's poet. Without fail, I return to this book and re-read it at least once a year, and without fail, Bishop's work continues to become increasingly important to me both as a reader, and as a poet. If you are a serious reader of poetry, you must own this book. If you are at all serious about writing poetry, you must own this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Poet's Poet
Review: Elizabeth Bishop was a poet's poet. Without fail, I return to this book and re-read it at least once a year, and without fail, Bishop's work continues to become increasingly important to me both as a reader, and as a poet. If you are a serious reader of poetry, you must own this book. If you are at all serious about writing poetry, you must own this book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: All-encompassing = fun fun fun!
Review: Elizabeth Bishop's use of structure (especially the villanelle) blows me away. This is a satisfying collection of poems because they're all there, and it's fairly easy to randomly thumb your finger through and stop on a poem that you don't know, but will enjoy. Though I know that it wasn't the goal of this book, I personally wish I could have found out more about her biography. A nice present to give to people who are a fan of "One Art" but who haven't read anything else by her.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: All-encompassing = fun fun fun!
Review: Elizabeth Bishop's use of structure (especially the villanelle) blows me away. This is a satisfying collection of poems because they're all there, and it's fairly easy to randomly thumb your finger through and stop on a poem that you don't know, but will enjoy. Though I know that it wasn't the goal of this book, I personally wish I could have found out more about her biography. A nice present to give to people who are a fan of "One Art" but who haven't read anything else by her.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Harvest of Joy
Review: Gosh, it is hard to sum up one's feelings about the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. She is one of those artists, like Shakespeare and Mozart and Cervantes, whose work contains such perfection it seems almost sacrilegious to comment upon it.

And she was ALWAYS a good poet. This volume proves it by publishing much of her juvenilia alongside more mature, better known poems as the wonderful "Florida", "Sestina", and the majestic "The Fish", a poem I enjoy teaching to my students every semester as a supreme example of imagery (I defy them to find instances of abstract language in the poem; there aren't many). Also included is an astonishing series of translations Bishop rendered over the years, mostly of South American poets, including Octavio Paz.

All in all, this is a treasure trove, a book for the ages, and a reminder of what we lost with Bishop's early death at age 68.


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