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  Contents

  TitlePage

  CopyrightNotice

  Acknowledgments

  Publisher’sNote

  THECOMPLETEPOEMS(1969)

  North&South(1946)

  TheMap

  TheImaginaryIceberg

  Casabianca

  TheColdertheAir

  WadingatWellfleet

  ChemindeFer

  TheGentlemanofShalott

  LargeBadPicture

  FromtheCountrytotheCity

  TheMan-Moth

  LoveLiesSleeping

  AMiracleforBreakfast

  TheWeed

  TheUnbeliever

  TheMonument

  Paris,7A.M.

  Quaid’Orléans

  SleepingontheCeiling

  SleepingStandingUp

  Cirqued’Hiver

  Florida

  Jerónimo’sHouse

  Roosters

  Seascape

  LittleExercise

  TheFish

  LateAir

  Cootchie

  SongsforaColoredSinger

  Anaphora

  AColdSpring(1955)

  AColdSpring

  Over2,000IllustrationsandaCompleteConcordance

  TheBight

  ASummer’sDream

  AttheFishhouses

  CapeBreton

  ViewofTheCapitolfromTheLibraryofCongress

  Insomnia

  TheProdigal

  Faustina,orRockRoses

  VarickStreet

  FourPoems

  I/Conversation

  II/RainTowardsMorning

  III/WhileSomeoneTelephones

  IV/OBreath

  LettertoN.Y.

  Argument

  InvitationtoMissMarianneMoore

  TheShampoo

  QuestionsofTravel(1965)

  BRAZIL

  ArrivalatSantos

  Brazil,January1,1502

  QuestionsofTravel

  Squatter’sChildren

  Manuelzinho

  ElectricalStorm

  SongfortheRainySeason

  TheArmadillo

  TheRiverman

  TwelfthMorning;orWhatYouWill

  TheBurglarofBabylon

  ELSEWHERE

  Manners

  Sestina

  FirstDeathinNovaScotia

  FillingStation

  Sunday,4A.M.

  Sandpiper

  FromTrollope’sJournal

  VisitstoSt.Elizabeths

  TranslationsfromthePortuguese(1969)

  CarlosDrummonddeAndrade

  Seven-SidedPoem

  Don’tKillYourself

  TravellingintheFamily

  TheTable

  JoãoCabraldeMeloNeto

  FromTheDeathandLifeofaSeverino

  NewandUncollectedWork(1969)

  RainySeason;Sub-Tropics

  GiantToad

  StrayedCrab

  GiantSnail

  TheHangingoftheMouse

  SomeDreamsTheyForgot

  Song

  HouseGuest

  Trouvée

  GoingtotheBakery

  UndertheWindow:OuroPrêto

  GEOGRAPHYIII(1976)

  IntheWaitingRoom

  CrusoeinEngland

  NightCity

  TheMoose

  12O’ClockNews

  Poem

  OneArt

  TheEndofMarch

  Objects&Apparitions

  FiveFlightsUp

  NEWANDUNCOLLECTEDPOEMS(1978–1979)

  Santarém

  NorthHaven

  PinkDog

  Sonnet

  UNCOLLECTEDPOEMS(1933–1969)

  TheFlood

  AWordwithYou

  HymntotheVirgin

  ThreeSonnetsfortheEyes

  I/TidalBasin

  II

  III

  ThreeValentines

  TheReprimand

  TheMountain

  TheWit

  ExchangingHats

  ANorther—KeyWest

  Thank-YouNote

  UNCOLLECTEDTRANSLATIONS(1950–1975)

  FROMTHEFRENCH

  MaxJacob

  Rainbow

  PatienceofanAngel

  Banks

  HellIsGraduated

  FROMTHEPORTUGUESE

  ManuelBandeira

  MyLastPoem

  BrazilianTragedy

  JoaquimCardozo

  CemeteryofChildhood

  ElegyforMariaAlves

  CarlosDrummonddeAndrade

  Infancy

  IntheMiddleoftheRoad

  FamilyPortrait

  ViníciusdeMoraes

  SonnetofIntimacy

  Anonymous

  FourSambas

  RiodeJaneiro

  Kickhimoutofoffice!

  Marshál,IllustriousMarshál

  Come,mymulata

  FROMTHESPANISH

  OctavioPaz

  TheKeyofWater

  AlongGaleanaStreet

  TheGrove

  JanuaryFirst

  APPENDIXI:SelectedUnpublishedManuscriptPoems

  ANOTEONTHETEXT

  Good-Bye—

  “Wewenttothedarkcaveofthestreet-corner…”

  InaRoom

  ToBeWrittenontheMirrorinWhitewash

  TheStreetbytheCemetery

  ForA.B.

  PleasureSeas

  “Itismarvelloustowakeuptogether…”

  EdgarAllanPoe&TheJuke-Box

  TheSoldierandtheSlot-Machine

  “Ihadabaddream…”

  TheOwl’sJourney

  “Wherearethedollswholovedmeso…”

  AShort,SlowLife

  SuicideofaModerateDictator

  Keaton

  DeathofMimoso

  ApartmentinLeme

  “Dear,mycompass…”

  Inventory

  ADrunkard

  LineswritteninacopyofFannieFarmer’s BostonCookingSchoolCookBook,

  giventoFrankBidart

  VaguePoem( Vaguelylovepoem)

  BreakfastSong

  ForGrandfather

  SalemWillows

  FloridaRevisited

  APPENDIXII:ContentsofElizabethBishop’sBooksofPoetryonFirst

  Publication,1946–1977

  IndexofTitlesandFirstLines

  AlsobyElizabethBishop

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  Thepublisherwishestoacknowledgethefollowingforassistancewithresearch and the preparation of the text: Dean Rogers, Laura Finkel, and Ron Patkus of Vassar College Libraries Special Collections; Leslie Morris, Heather Cole, Rachel Howarth, James Capobianco, Mary Haegert, Susan Halpert, Emilie Hardman, Micah Hoggatt, Emily Walhout, and Joseph Zajac of the Houghton Library,HarvardUniversity;ElizabethE.FullerandKarenSchoenewaldtofthe Rosenbach Museum and Library; John Cordovez, Nasima Hasnat, Thomas

  Lannon,andLeeSpilbergoftheManuscriptsandArchivesDivisionoftheNew York Public Library; and Catherine Barnett, Paulo Britto, Eleanor Chai, Fra
nk Bidart, Eamon Grennan, Paul Keegan, Carmen Oliveira, Barbara Page, Alice Quinn, and Lloyd Schwartz. Thanks above all to Saskia Hamilton, for her painstakingcareinhelpingpreparethisedition.

  Publisher’sNote

  ThiseditionofElizabethBishop’spoems,printedforthecentenaryofherbirth, includes all the poems and translations she published between 1933 and her death in 1979.* It preserves the distinction Bishop made between poems and translations collected in volumes and those she left out of her books after their appearance in periodicals and anthologies. It follows her selection and arrangement of The Complete Poems (1969) and Geography III (1976), supplemented by four late poems left uncollected at her death. The other published poems and translations that she chose to omit from her two final volumesaregatheredintwopartsinafinalsection.

  Bishop recalled that, as a young poet, a visit with Marianne Moore would leave her uplifted and determined “never to try to publish anything until I thoughtI’ddonemybestwithit,nomatterhowmanyyearsittook—orneverto publish at all.” The many poems in her archive that were left nearly finished attesttothestrengthofherresolve. TheCompletePoemswasitselfaselection (“Omissions are not accidents,” as the epigraph to Marianne Moore’s own Complete Poems warns). It provided the occasion for Bishop to winnow and reviseasshegatheredherwork.Revisionshereincludedchangestotheoriginal ordering and contents of her three collections to date ( North & South, A Cold Spring, and Questions of Travel). She offered a selection of her translations of Portuguese poetry, which is integral to the structure of this book (much as

  “Objects&Apparitions,”atranslationofapoembyOctavioPaz,isintegralto Geography III), but excluded earlier translations of French poetry. And she chose to include only three early works (“The Hanging of the Mouse,” “Some DreamsTheyForgot,”and“Song”)toaccompanyrecentlyfinishedwork.

  As editions of her poems published since her death have demonstrated, Bishopleftbehindalargebodyofothermaterialthatshedidnotfeel“I’ddone my best with” or “did not finish or publish for other reasons” but which is of unquestionableliteraryinterest.Severalpoemsnotpublishedinherlifetimefirst appeared in cleaned-up transcriptions in the 1983 edition of The Complete Poems,1927–1979. From 1983 to 2006, books and articles by Bishop scholars quoted and discussed other texts. These and other discoveries were presented and annotated in Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box (2006). Still more have appeared since in reviews, and in the Library of America’s Elizabeth Bishop: Poems,Prose,andLetters(2008). *Anappendixtothepresentvolumeincludes a group of these manuscript poems, which offer readers a view of Bishop’s workingmethods.

  AsecondappendixliststhecontentsofElizabethBishop’sbooksofpoetryas firstpublishedfrom1946to1977.

  * The year 1933 has been taken as a point of departure, being the date of the earliest published poem includedinBishop’sselectionfor TheCompletePoems(1969).

  *Evenso,thepublishedtextshavenotexhaustedwhatthearchivecontains—includingmanuscriptpoems and translations as yet unpublished, as well as unpublished drafts of eventually completed and published poems,poemsbyothers,songlyrics(blues,ballads)writtendownortranslated,andnotebookentries.

  THECOMPLETEPOEMS(1969)

  North&South(1946)

  TheMap

  Landliesinwater;itisshadowedgreen.

  Shadows,oraretheyshallows,atitsedges

  showingthelineoflongsea-weededledges

  whereweedshangtothesimplebluefromgreen.

  Ordoesthelandleandowntolifttheseafromunder,

  drawingitunperturbedarounditself?

  Alongthefinetansandyshelf

  isthelandtuggingattheseafromunder?

  TheshadowofNewfoundlandliesflatandstill.

  Labrador’syellow,wherethemoonyEskimo

  hasoiledit.Wecanstroketheselovelybays,

  underaglassasiftheywereexpectedtoblossom,

  orasiftoprovideacleancageforinvisiblefish.

  Thenamesofseashoretownsrunouttosea,

  thenamesofcitiescrosstheneighboringmountains

  —theprinterhereexperiencingthesameexcitement

  aswhenemotiontoofarexceedsitscause.

  Thesepeninsulastakethewaterbetweenthumbandfinger

  likewomenfeelingforthesmoothnessofyard-goods.

  Mappedwatersaremorequietthanthelandis,

  lendingthelandtheirwaves’ownconformation:

  andNorway’sharerunssouthinagitation,

  profilesinvestigatethesea,wherelandis.

  Aretheyassigned,orcanthecountriespicktheircolors?

  —Whatsuitsthecharacterorthenativewatersbest.

  Topographydisplaysnofavorites;North’sasnearasWest.

  Moredelicatethanthehistorians’arethemap-makers’colors.

  TheImaginaryIceberg

  We’dratherhavetheicebergthantheship,

  althoughitmeanttheendoftravel.

  Althoughitstoodstock-stilllikecloudyrock

  andalltheseaweremovingmarble.

  We’dratherhavetheicebergthantheship;

  we’dratherownthisbreathingplainofsnow

  thoughtheship’ssailswerelaiduponthesea

  asthesnowliesundissolveduponthewater.

  Osolemn,floatingfield,

  areyouawareanicebergtakesrepose

  withyou,andwhenitwakesmaypastureonyoursnows?

  Thisisasceneasailor’dgivehiseyesfor.

  Theship’signored.Theicebergrises

  andsinksagain;itsglassypinnacles

  correctellipticsinthesky.

  Thisisascenewherehewhotreadstheboards

  isartlesslyrhetorical.Thecurtain

  islightenoughtoriseonfinestropes

  thatairytwistsofsnowprovide.

  Thewitsofthesewhitepeaks

  sparwiththesun.Itsweighttheicebergdares

  uponashiftingstageandstandsandstares.

  Thisicebergcutsitsfacetsfromwithin.

  Likejewelryfromagrave

  itsavesitselfperpetuallyandadorns

  onlyitself,perhapsthesnows

  whichsosurpriseuslyingonthesea.

  Good-bye,wesay,good-bye,theshipsteersoff

  wherewavesgiveintooneanother’swaves

  andcloudsruninawarmersky.

  Icebergsbehoovethesoul

  (bothbeingself-madefromelementsleastvisible)

  toseethemso:fleshed,fair,erectedindivisible.

  Casabianca

  Love’stheboystoodontheburningdeck

  tryingtorecite“Theboystoodon

  theburningdeck.”Love’stheson

  stoodstammeringelocution

  whilethepoorshipinflameswentdown.

  Love’stheobstinateboy,theship,

  eventheswimmingsailors,who

  wouldlikeaschoolroomplatform,too,

  oranexcusetostay

  ondeck.Andlove’stheburningboy.

  TheColdertheAir

  Wemustadmireherperfectaim,

  thishuntressofthewinterair

  whoselevelweaponneedsnosight,

  ifitwerenotthateverywhere

  hergameissure,hershotisright.

  Theleastofuscoulddothesame.

  Thechalkybirdsorboatsstandstill,

  reducingherconditionsofch
ance;

  air’sgallerymarksidentically

  thenarrowgalleryofherglance.

  Thetarget-centerinhereye

  isequallyheraimandwill.

  Time’sinherpocket,tickingloud

  ononestalledsecond.She’llconsult

  nottimenorcircumstance.Shecalls

  onatmosphereforherresult.

  (Itisthisclockthatlaterfalls

  inwheelsandchimesofleafandcloud.)

  WadingatWellfleet

  InoneoftheAssyrianwars

  achariotfirstsawthelight

  thatboresharpbladesarounditswheels.

  ThatchariotfromAssyria

  wentrollingdownmechanically

  totakethewarriorsbytheheels.

  Athousandwarriorsinthesea

  couldnotconsidersuchawar

  asthattheseaitselfcontrives

  buthasn’tputinactionyet.

  Thismorning’sglitteringsreveal

  theseais“allacaseofknives.”

  Lyingsoclose,theycatchthesun,

  thespokesdirectedattheshin.

  Thechariotfrontisblueandgreat.

  Thewarrestswhollywiththewaves:

  theytryrevolving,butthewheels

  giveway;theywillnotbeartheweight.

  ChemindeFer

  Aloneontherailroadtrack

  Iwalkedwithpoundingheart.

  Thetiesweretooclosetogether

  ormaybetoofarapart.

  Thescenerywasimpoverished:

  scrub-pineandoak;beyond

  itsmingledgray-greenfoliage

  Isawthelittlepond

  wherethedirtyhermitlives,

  lielikeanoldtear

  holdingontoitsinjuries

  lucidlyyearafteryear.

  Thehermitshotoffhisshot-gun

  andthetreebyhiscabinshook.

  Overthepondwentaripple.

  Thepethenwentchook-chook.

  “Loveshouldbeputintoaction!”

  screamedtheoldhermit.

  Acrossthepondanecho

  triedandtriedtoconfirmit.

  TheGentlemanofShalott

  Whicheye’shiseye?

  Whichlimblies

  nextthemirror?

  Forneitherisclearer

  noradifferentcolor

  thantheother,

  normeetsastranger

  inthisarrangement

  oflegandlegand

  armandsoon.

  Tohismind

  it’stheindication