Complete Poems. 1969. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. Print. 

 

Content:

 

The Complete Poems includes the complete poems from Elizabeth Bishop's initial three publications, previously uncollected translations from Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Joao Cabral de Melo Neto, and new and uncollected work from Bishop herself.

 

Pieces in this work include:

 

• North& South

• Poems: North & South/ A Cold Spring

• Questions of Travel

• Translations from the Portuguese (Carlos Drummond de Andrade)

  • "Seven-Sided Poem"

  • "Don’t Kill Yourself"

  • "Traveling in the Family"

  • "The Table"

• Joao Cabral de Melo Neto

  • from The Death and Life of Severino

• New and Uncollected Work

  • Rainy Season; Sub-Tropics

    • "Giant Toad"

    • "Strayed Crab"

    • "Giant Snail"

  • "The Hanging of the Mouse"

  • "Some Dreams They Forgot"

  • "Song"

  • "House Guest"

  • "Trouvee"

  • "Going to the Bakery"

  • "Under the Window: Ouro Preto"

 

Previous Publications:

 

32 of the poems in this work were previously published in The New Yorker.

 

Six of the poems were originally published in Poetry.

 

Certain other poems in this work were originally published in Direction, Forum, Harper’s Bazaar, The Kenyon Review, Life and Letters Today, The Nation, New Democracy, New Directions in Prose and Poetry, The New Republic, The New Yorker Review of Books, Partisan Review, The Quarterly Review of Literature, Saturday Review, Shenandoah, Trial Balances, and Vassar Review.

 

Published at the same time by Doubleday Canada Ltd. in Toronto, Canada.

 

Critical Reaction:

 

Ashbury, John. “The Complete Poems.” 1969. New York Times. pg. BR8. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/bishop-complete69.pdf

“One hopes that the title of Elizabeth Bishop’s new book is an error and that there will be more poems and at least another “Complete Poems.” The present volume runs a little more than 200 pages, and although the proportion of pure poetry in it outweighs many a chunky collected volume from other established poets (Miss Bishop is somehow an established poet herself, and the establishment ought to give thanks: she is proof that it can’t be all bad), it is still not enough for an addict of her work. For, like other addicting substances, this work creates a hunger for itself: the more one tastes it, the less of it there seems to be.”

 

Prizes and Awards:

 

Winner of the National Book Award in 1969