By: Sammy-Jo Skipper

Born on Feb.8, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Had a difficult childhood. Father died of kidney disease on Oct.13, 1911 when she was only 8 months old. Mother was committed to the Nova Scotia mental institution in 1916 and died there in May Elizabeth went to live with her grandparents in Nova Scotia and never seen her mother after she had been committed. From 1927 to 1930 she went to Walnut Hill School, a boarding school in Natick, Massachusetts. Went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1930 and majored in English. She earned a bachelor’s degree in 1934.

From 1935 to 1937 she traveled to France, Spain, North Africa, Ireland and Italy. She then settled in Key West, Florida for 4 years. Descriptions of her travels and the scenery are in her poetry. She was influenced by poet Marianne Moore who was a close friend, mentor and stabilizing force in her life. Her poetry focuses on her impressions of the physical world. In 1964 she was awarded the fellowship of the Academy of American Poets. From 1966 to 1979 she served as a Chancellor. She died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Oct.6, She was 68 years old.

I think that Elizabeth Bishop’s poems reflect her life and her travels. By reading Elizabeth’s poems you can pretty much tell that she had a hard childhood and that she was moved around a lot. I agree with the critics when they say that Elizabeth Bishop’s poems reflect all her travels and the way that she sees the world around her. The intellectually challenging thing for me was trying to understand what she really meant when she was using all the metaphor's in her poems. Once I read about her life and what she went though I understand that all the metaphor’s are really just her way have putting her life into nicest words. The aesthetically appealing thing that I found in Elizabeth’s poems was the fact that she could take something so horrible such as her childhood and make it into something beautiful in her poems. I really liked Elizabeth's poems after I read about what her life was like. I think that in order to really, truly understand what her poems mean and how they relate to her and where she has been, you really have to read about her life and then image her thinking about that every time she sits down to write a poem and then they will understand her poems and where she is coming from. In conclusion, just about everybody agrees that Elizabeth Bishop’s poems reflect her travels and the way sees the world around her.

We are caught, Like a fish in a bucket, An ant in a jar. Where do we go? What do we do? Than we are freed, Like a fish in the ocean, An ant in a field. Where do we go? What do we do?

My poem imitates Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “Sonnet…Caught” because it’s on the topics of being caught and being freed which is the same topics Elizabeth Bishop’s poem.

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