… on On Elizabeth Bishop by Colm Tóibín (Princeton University Press) | On the Seawall: A Literary Website by Ron Slate (GD). (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tóibín launches his book by immediately addressing Bishop’s odd blend of attentiveness and demurral. “She began with the idea that little is known and that much is puzzling,” reads his first sentence. Reflecting on her childhood, he hears a “panic held in check” in the poems. Soon he recalls his own youth in Ireland: “I have a close relationship with silence, with things withheld, things known and not said.” Well, don’t we all? And that seems to be Tóibín’s point – Bishop’s poetry portrays commonly experienced moments of lingering in loss while maintaining our routines if not our dignity.
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