o

o
o
o

o
o

o
o

o
o
o

o
o
o

o
o

Her life
Born February 9, 1911
Tough childhood = father died when 8 months old from kidney
disease, mother institutionalized at 5, moved around between
grandparents, health issues,
Lived with aunt = happiness
Went to Vassar College and met Marianne Moore
Friend, mentor, mother figure

Leave medical school

Good friends with Robert Lowell

Influenced her writing a lot
Moore -- detailed writing and lots of imagery

Lowell -- confessional poet

Didn't want to be labelled as a confessional poet even though

her personal life influenced a lot of her writing
Didn't like labels in general -- she was a lesbian, alcoholic,

manic depressive..
She went to Brazil and met Lota Soares, who would become her
partner for 15 years
Visiting NY and Soares came for a weekend and

committed suicide
Large toll on Bishop. Lowell offered teaching job at Harvard
Died in 1979 from aneurism
Connection to Modernism
As a lesbian and feminist, Bishop didn't follow social norms
Part of Modernism is revealing the author's opinions and
thoughts, and Bishop, in many of her poems, reveals her thoughts on
connections in the world and her sexuality
Has a secular world view, so she doesn't believes there is no
ultimate purpose in life
Major themes
Childhood and relationships
Travel and nature (her love to travel)
Connections in the world
Def. of Confessional Poets
Poetry using "I"
Private experiences with and feelings about death, trauma,
depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry,
often in an autobiographical manner
Analyze poem
There are a lot of different interpretations of this poem, but I see
it as a female character is comparing herself to the moon (they are
both up at night)
At the end, she states "and you love me" so she's

imagining this world that's inverted where this person loves her
The second stanza talks about the different places where

her life is reimagined

Wrapping up care in a cobweb = addressing her lesbian

relationships and how people looked down on them
Good example of how Bishop wrote about her interpersonal
relationships