Customer Reviews

Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments

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Elizabeth Bishop published less than 100 poems prior to her death in 1979. This new collection is similiar to a box CD set of studio out-takes of a rock musician : not essential for the causal reader but a must for a true believer of the artist. It is the definitive edition of her unpublished work with extensive notes and annotations. Some of her private poetry is considerably more erotic and emotional than her previously published work and the new poems (over 100+) are the reason to buy this edition. Having said this, the reader is referred to "The Complete Poems, 1927-1979" (1983) of Elizabeth Bishop.

Length:: 3:07 Mins

These previously unpublished poems and essays (exhausively footnoted) indeed do not display the fine craftsmanship of Bishop at her best. But they do reveal the extraordinarily chaotic life of a poet beset by all manner of dire events: bouts of alcoholism, suicides of lovers, relatives dying in madhouses etc. that make it a very gripping read.

I chose this particular poem to read because it best represents these elements in Bishop's life. Her approach to it and herself was extremely sardonic. Indeed, having read all the poems included herein aloud, I find it impossible to get the tone correct without adopting a sardonic, self-mocking manner. It's simply the only plausible way to read these poems.

This is not the best Bishop poem, but it's the most representative of this volume. It reveals the dark side of herself which she hid from the world and did not want us to see.

This rather strangely titled book is a tribute to the demand for Elizabeth Bishop's work. It is a set of pieces gleaned from some 3,500 pages in the Vassar College library collection. Not exactly random (but almost) here are 108 poems, some prose, notes she took, some sketches, some facimilies of her papers, some sketches she made, and other pieces harder to describe.

Obviously this is a book that will appeal most to people who are already Elizabeth Bishop fans. This is more of a work in process. It tells more about her as a person, it illustrates the great effort she went to get her poems just right before sending them off for publication. It shows something of the way her mind worked.

The work here is not Ms. Bishop's best. It's unfinished. Some of the shorter pieces, fragments really, make you wonder where she might have taken it.

The question regarding whether to publish the unpublished work of great authors is indeed a vexing one, especially in this case since the poet evidently chose not to release these.
However, just as in the case of the notebooks of great philosophers such as Kant and Nietzsche, one often gleans riches from their fragments. Elizabeth Bishop is a great poet, and there are treasures of all kinds here--images, rhythms, narratives.

A great book by one of the greatest poets ever. New insight into her working process, of a very private poet. I love it.

Now that this is remaindered, it's safe to pick up a copy. No, it is not a perfect EB collection, but it doesn't claim to be. Any time one delves into the unpublished material of a writer, one knows one is not going to find gold--it's not here. But it sure is interesting stuff. I do wish someone had transcribed rather than reproduced the series of drafts of "One Art." There's real insight into EB's process.

This book's availability in hardcover makes the unavailability of Bishop's "Collected Poems 1927-1979" in hardcover hard to fathom. FS&G, please reprint EB's collected poems in hardcover as well as paperback. Thanks.