Home
/
Fiction
/
Poems
Poems
Nov 15, 2025 11:28 AM

Author:Elizabeth Bishop

Poems

This is the definitive centenary edition of the work of one of America's greatest poets, recognised today as a master of her art and acclaimed by poets and readers alike. Her poems display honesty and humour, grief and acceptance, observing nature and human nature with painstaking accuracy. They often start outwardly, with geography and landscape - from New England and Nova Scotia, where Bishop grew up, to Florida and Brazil, where she later lived - and move inexorably toward the interior, exploring questions of knowledge and perception, love and solitude, and the ability or inability of form to control chaos.

This new edition, edited by Saskia Hamilton, includes Bishop's four published volumes (North & South, A Cold Spring, Questions of Travel and Geography III), as well as uncollected poems, translations and an illuminating selection of unpublished manuscript poems, reproduced in facsimile, revealing exactly how finished, or unfinished, Bishop left them. It offers readers the opportunity to enjoy the complete poems of one of the most distinguished American poets of the twentieth century.

Reviews

One of the greatest poets of the twentieth century

—— William Boyd , Guardian

When we read her, we enter the classical serenity of a new country

—— Robert Lowell

If ever there was a poet whose every scrap of writing should be in print, that poet must be Elizabeth Bishop

—— Christopher Reid

One of this century's most evocative writers

—— Anne Tyler

Marquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do

—— Salman Rushdie

An exquisite writer, wise, compassionate and extremely funny

—— Sunday Telegraph

A virtuoso display

—— Observer

[An] exquisite and suspenseful novel

—— Week

A page-turner, with a plot so engrossing that it seems reckless to pick the book up in the evening if you plan to get any sleep that night

—— A S Byatt , Daily Mail

Taut with narrative excitement and suspense...a novel of rich diversity that triumphantly integrates imagination and intelligence, rationality and emotional alertness

—— Sunday Times

He is the maestro at creating suspense: the particular, sickening, see-sawing kind that demands a kind of physical courage from the reader to continue reading

—— New Statesman

Deeply humane tale of memory, loss and the struggle to understand a family’s past… It’s a novel of generous warmth

—— Ben Felsenburg , Metro Herald

A beautiful, brilliant novel destined to cement Sue's place as one of the leading lights of the Scottish literary scene

—— Waterstones

Peebles' keen eye for social observation adds a comic touch to the narrative, expertly showing how black humour is used in bleak times.

—— Rowena McIntosh , The Skinny

Peebles writes poetic prose, capturing Aggie's imaginative character and her need to find meaning in the puzzle of circumstances she finds herself in. The insight into dementia and its impact upon a family is poignant, with Aggie desperate to recapture the history of a beloved Gran who is disappearing in front of her eyes. The novel strongly evokes the Scottish countryside, its link to the past and the secrets it keeps. The story may be a slow burner, but keep going because its gentle pace builds up to a satisfying conclusion

—— Penny Batchelor , We Love This Book

Aridjis tells an improbable tale with enough details to give it authenticity, and to make her genuinely creepy story something thoughtful and original

—— Lesley McDowell, 4 stars , Independent on Sunday

This is an incredibly atmospheric novel, seen through the eyes of Marie, a consummate outsider

—— Bath Chronicle

Aridjis is a fantastic new voice in fiction with a real gift for character and location

—— Bath Magazine

Set against London’s rain-soaked streets, it is an astute portrait of the alienation of urban life

—— Anna Savva, 4 stars , Lady

A beautiful tale examining the processes of life

—— Good Book Guide

Eschewing a conventional narrative, this absorbing novel deceptively contains a crackling energy within its understated, artful prose

—— Francesca Angelini , Sunday Times
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved