Geography III

In the collection of poems in Geography III, Elizabeth Bishop employs simple language to paint vivid pictures of landscapes. Whether we’re sitting on the edge of “miserable, small volcanoes,” in “Crusoe in England”, or reading (she could read) through a National Geographic at a dentist’s office in “In the Waiting Room,” we are drawn to the setting, or geography, of Bishop’s choice. There’s “Poem”, where the picture she creates with her fluid strokes of language is that of an actual painting. She takes the reader on round-trip journeys, following giant dog-prints (or lion prints) along a frigid shoreline in “The End of March,” and then she leads us on incomplete journeys, such as her bus trip that is suddenly interrupted by, “The Moose”, “curious creatures.” Bishop even manages to brush over the landscape of the heart in “One Art”, where she attempts to convince the reader that “the art of losing isn’t hard to master.”, until she gets to, “you (the joking voice, a gesture I love),” and it becomes clear it is not only the reader she is trying to convince. Just as a map can convey the entire world in one sliver of paper, so too, does Geography III encompass vast emotional and physical terrain.

In reading poetry, I am often left scratching my head at the great contradiction to its actual translation versus my own interpretation; hence, as a rule, poetry and I aren’t on the best of terms. That being said, I must admit that I did not find Elizabeth Bishop at all unbearable to read. I didn’t have to drudge through an other-worldly vernacular with a dictionary in tow as I often do with poetry- in my opinion a foreign enough word in itself! Instead, I found myself appreciating, and even, at times, enjoying Bishop’s use of plain language and her uncanny ability to make simple things appear grand. My favorite piece of the collection is “One Art”. I love the trivial voice of the heartbroken narrator. I would venture to say that the method of denial in coping with loss is not at all foreign to most people, and I am no exception to that rule. In my opinion, Elizabeth Bishop captures it perfectly here. Having endured losing the two greatest things a child can lose-her parents- I’m sure Bishop is all too familiar with just how much loss can resemble disaster.