Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Great Regulars: Included here are, whisper who dare,

poems whose heavy-handed use of rhyme sets up an unappealing, oddly-naive clangour. "Pink Dog", from the last year of the poet's life (1911-1979), may conceivably be imitating the folk art of the Brazilian Carnival, where it's set; but other uncollected poems sound frankly occasional.

Yet rhyme is what structures many of Bishop's canonical poems--such as "One Art", the experience of loss clicked shut in a villanelle, or "The Moose", five pages of "dreamy divagation" set on an long-distance bus--with her characteristically light yet steely touch.

from Fiona Sampson: The Independent: Poems and Prose, By Elizabeth Bishop

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