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Bishop Elizabeth 1911 - 1979 (68)

Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.


QUOTES

One art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,


Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Elizabeth Bishop, (1911-1979, was one of the most important American poets of the 20th century. Born on February 8, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts, her father died before her first birthday d and shortly thereafter, her mother was committed to a mental asylum. Elizabeth grew up with her maternal grandparents until 6 and then with paternal relatives. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1934. As she grew up she became aware of her homosexuality and she found a way out in poetry and travel. Bishop inherited a fortune from her father so she never had financial problems. She spent time traveling to France, Spain, North Africa, Ireland and Italy and then settled in Florida.

Her first book, “North and South”, was published in 1946, with poetry filled with descriptions of her travels and the scenery that surrounded her, avoiding accounts of her personal life. She lived for many years in Brazil where she had a relationship with the famous Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. She wrote slowly and published sparingly (her Collected Poems number barely 100), but the technical brilliance and formal variety of her work is outstanding. She received the 1956 Pulitzer Prize and the 1970 National Book Award. That same year, Bishop began teaching at Harvard University, where she worked for seven years. With the publication of her last book, Geography III in 1977, she was established as a major poet. She died 2 year later in her apartment, on October 6, 1979.