Reading COLM TOIBIN "On Elizabeth Bishop"
Truly brilliant and a pleasure to read. I am afraid I cannot quote him. You just must read him for youself! I could hardly wait to pick it up, each time I had to set it down...but it's nice to digest each small section on its own, due to the richness of the writing and observation. Toibin, as always, is self referential, as well as loyal to his Irish poets, especially Gunn, and starts by showing how much he admired these poets before he became a writer. He also travels to each location in which Bishop lived and traces her poems and life path, to add dimension to his observations. Toibin deals with the poetic textual scansion of Elizabeth Bishop's poems, and her particular rhyme schemes and word choices, as well, as the impact of her life lived in many geographical climes. He finally interprets and analyzes the reciprocal influence of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop upon one another's poetry as they exchanged and critiqued poems all their lives. Each regarded the other "as a best friend". They differ, however, and Toibin discusses these dissonances as well as the respect for one another's work. Given the Berkeley Rep play last year focussing on Bishop and Lowell's relationship, due to the adaptation from correspondence, these chapters had resonance. It is a wonderful long long essay, again celebrating the written word, Ireland, writers, locales, his own development and passion for the written word, and most of all his genius, in synthesizing it in a most dignified way, with his allusion to his own study of and participation in gay writers. What an appropriate text, in some ways, to read on the day of the Gay Pride parades in SF and in NYC and the passage of a law permitting gay couples to participate in the social fabric of marriage.
My own postscript comments: Last year, I found a book of Elizabeth Bishop's artwork, which provided yet another perspective into her life's work. Toibin does not mention this, and i know he is interested in art, so I wonder if he "misssed" this! EXCHANGING HATS Elizabeth Bishop Paintings. Edited and with an introduction and afterword by William Benton. A graduate of Vassar and born in and died in Massachusetts, She lived in Paris, Mexico, New York, Key West Florida and in Brazil for more than a decade. . She won the Pulitzer, a National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She died in Boston in 1979. The curator of her show on Key West in 1993 is the author of this book. Meyer Schapiro says "She writes poems with a painter's eye." She replied that she would love to be a painter! James Merrill praised "Merida from the Roof", and singled out "an absurd ornamental urn...he speaks much of the affecting modesty of these pictures...the paintings are somewhat naive art, but the fact that she did watercolors and sketches(all I could ever attempt myself) is pertinent to the imagery in her poetry. Two excerpts from EB's reflections in the AFTERWARD: (She liked the Caldars and they visited her in Brazil): "Calder has left us the biggest pair of blue jeans I have ever seen and a red flannel shirt. We do like them (the Caldars) so much. He composed a small poem one day after I had tactlessly suggested a nap -- or maybe it was what I said: If you've had too much booze,/You can take a little snooze.?
The other choice is an encounter with Mary Anne Moore, with whom Colm Toibin deals... "One day she abruptly asked me, "Do you like the nude, Elizabeth? " I said yes, I did on the whole. Marinane: "Well, so do I, but in moderation." and she immediately pressed on me a copy of Sir Kenneth Clark's new book, The Nude, which had just been sent to her.
Geography III is the work I always appreciated, and Colm Toibin singles this collection out... I have a signed first edition, which because of its limited quantities, is rather precious. She read at the Academy of Art, which programs were often held at the Guggenheim in this period. Anyone want to purchase it?
I recall that Mark Strand was a great admirer of Elizabeth Bishop. He always quoted her and referred to her in his readings at the Academy of Poets in NYC. I met him at Breadloaf. Lowell was still living, when I lived in NYC in the 70's; the city had a reading of his poems for the 4th of July.
My own postscript comments: Last year, I found a book of Elizabeth Bishop's artwork, which provided yet another perspective into her life's work. Toibin does not mention this, and i know he is interested in art, so I wonder if he "misssed" this! EXCHANGING HATS Elizabeth Bishop Paintings. Edited and with an introduction and afterword by William Benton. A graduate of Vassar and born in and died in Massachusetts, She lived in Paris, Mexico, New York, Key West Florida and in Brazil for more than a decade. . She won the Pulitzer, a National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She died in Boston in 1979. The curator of her show on Key West in 1993 is the author of this book. Meyer Schapiro says "She writes poems with a painter's eye." She replied that she would love to be a painter! James Merrill praised "Merida from the Roof", and singled out "an absurd ornamental urn...he speaks much of the affecting modesty of these pictures...the paintings are somewhat naive art, but the fact that she did watercolors and sketches(all I could ever attempt myself) is pertinent to the imagery in her poetry. Two excerpts from EB's reflections in the AFTERWARD: (She liked the Caldars and they visited her in Brazil): "Calder has left us the biggest pair of blue jeans I have ever seen and a red flannel shirt. We do like them (the Caldars) so much. He composed a small poem one day after I had tactlessly suggested a nap -- or maybe it was what I said: If you've had too much booze,/You can take a little snooze.?
The other choice is an encounter with Mary Anne Moore, with whom Colm Toibin deals... "One day she abruptly asked me, "Do you like the nude, Elizabeth? " I said yes, I did on the whole. Marinane: "Well, so do I, but in moderation." and she immediately pressed on me a copy of Sir Kenneth Clark's new book, The Nude, which had just been sent to her.
Geography III is the work I always appreciated, and Colm Toibin singles this collection out... I have a signed first edition, which because of its limited quantities, is rather precious. She read at the Academy of Art, which programs were often held at the Guggenheim in this period. Anyone want to purchase it?
I recall that Mark Strand was a great admirer of Elizabeth Bishop. He always quoted her and referred to her in his readings at the Academy of Poets in NYC. I met him at Breadloaf. Lowell was still living, when I lived in NYC in the 70's; the city had a reading of his poems for the 4th of July.
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