but we turn to those notes repeatedly to discover, sometimes in [Elizabeth] Bishop's own words, the human events swirling around the writing.
There is one example of Bishop's draft-to-finished-poem process. The 15 drafts of "One Art" are included in the appendix (regrettably minus notes).
from The Guardian: Caught in mid-creation
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2 comments :
Thanks for this article on one of my favourite poets.
"It's easy enough to earmark the numerous poems that fall short of Bishop's exacting best. But, equally, there are few that completely fail to give fleeting glimpses of her quality."
Funny, the author almost sounds surprised that this should be so--that a poet's notebook should be filled with turds. And yet I think most poets who take their art seriously would probably say "gee, that sounds like my notebook." That said, in my case, the revision process ends up being, for the most part, an exercise in turd polishing. ;-)
Hi Peter,
I didn't want to overdo it on Elizabeth Bishop news articles this past month, with the new book out. But this one went into the fact that Bishop did not destroy her drafts, but left them. It seems most anyone would have the understanding that you do, in that they all would have some degree of turdiness.
I really like that she did not publish anything below such a high standard, even if it kept her output down. That's a meta-standard in itself.
Thanks for the great comment.
Yours,
Rus
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