Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

The Monument

Now can you see the monument? It is of woodbuilt somewhat like a box. No. Builtlike several boxes in descending sizesone above the other.Each is..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Colder The Air

We must admire her perfect aim,this huntress of the winter airwhose level weapon needs no sight,if it were not that everywhereher game is sure, her..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The End Of March

For John Malcolm Brinnin and Bill Read: DuxburyIt was cold and windy, scarcely the dayto take a walk on that long beachEverything was withdrawn as..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Armadillo

For Robert LowellThis is the time of yearwhen almost every nightthe frail, illegal fire balloons appear.Climbing the mountain height,rising toward a..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Poem

About the size of an old-style dollar bill,American or Canadian,mostly the same whites, gray greens, and steel grays-this little painting (a sketch..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Invitation To Miss Marianne Moore

From Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, on this fine morning, please come flying.In a cloud of fiery pale chemicals, please come flying,to..

© Elizabeth Bishop

O Breath

Beneath that loved and celebrated breast,silent, bored really blindly veined,grieves, maybe lives and letslive, passes bets,something..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Unbeliever

He sleeps on the top of a mast. - BunyanHe sleeps on the top of a mastwith his eyes fast closed.The sails fall away below himlike the sheets of his..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Shampoo

The still explosions on the rocks,the lichens, growby spreading, gray, concentric shocks.They have arrangedto meet the rings around the moon..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Seascape

This celestial seascape, with white herons got up as angels,flying high as they want and as far as they want sidewisein tiers and tiers of immaculate..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Imaginary Iceberg

We'd rather have the iceberg than the ship,although it meant the end of travel.Although it stood stock-still like cloudy rockand all the sea were..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Bight

At low tide like this how sheer the water is.White, crumbling ribs of marl protrude and glareand the boats are dry, the pilings dry as..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Sandpiper

The roaring alongside he takes for granted,and that every so often the world is bound to shake.He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,in a..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Lullaby For The Cat

Minnow, go to sleep and dream,Close your great big eyes;Round your bed Events prepareThe pleasantest surprise.Darling Minnow, drop that frown,Just..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Casabianca

Love's the boy stood on the burning decktrying to recite `The boy stood onthe burning deck.' Love's the sonstood stammering elocutionwhile the..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Manners

For a Child of 1918My grandfather said to meas we sat on the wagon seat,"Be sure to remember to alwaysspeak to everyone you meet."We met a stranger..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Letter To N.Y.

For Louise CraneIn your next letter I wish you'd saywhere you are going and what you are doing;how are the plays and after the playswhat other..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Large Bad Picture

Remembering the Strait of Belle Isle orsome northerly harbor of Labrador,before he became a schoolteachera great-uncle painted a big picture.Receding..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Little Exercise

For Thomas Edwards WanningThink of the storm roaming the sky uneasilylike a dog looking for a place to sleep in,listen to it growling.Think how they..

© Elizabeth Bishop

The Map

Land lies in water; it is shadowed green.Shadows, or are they shallows, at its edgesshowing the line of long sea-weeded ledgeswhere weeds hang to the..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Song For The Rainy Season

Hidden, oh hiddenin the high fogthe house we live in,beneath the magnetic rock,rain-, rainbow-ridden,where blood-blackbromelias, lichens,owls, and..

© Elizabeth Bishop

To Be Written On The Mirror In Whitewash

I live only here, between your eyes and you,But I live in your world. What do I do?--Collect no interest--otherwise what I can;Above all I am not..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Cirque D'Hiver

Across the floor flits the mechanical toy,fit for a king of several centuries back.A little circus horse with real white hair.His eyes are glossy..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Giant Toad

I am too big. Too big by far. Pity me.My eyes bulge and hurt. They are my one great beauty, evenso. They see too much, above, below. And yet, there..

© Elizabeth Bishop

Lines Written In The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

[Given to Frank Bidart]You won't become a gourmet* cookBy studying our Fannie's book--Her thoughts on Food & Keeping HouseAre scarcely those of..

© Elizabeth Bishop