The Fish

“The Moose” by Elizabeth Bishop (1976)

As in “The Fish,” the animal world suddenly intersects with the human world in this Bishop poem from much later in her career. “The Moose” paints a memorable visual and auditory picture of passengers on a bus and the moment of wonder that interrupts their journey.

“The Paper Nautilus” by Marianne Moore (1941)

A longtime mentor and friend of Bishop, Moore’s poem, published in the first decade of their friendship, showcases her intelligence and skill as a poet. Greatly influential on Bishop’s poetry, Moore’s  close studies of the natural world often weave in strands from science, history, and literature—in this case, references to the Classical world.

“Skunk Hour” by Robert Lowell (1956)

Lowell’s poem “Skunk Hour” is dedicated to Elizabeth Bishop. It demonstrates Lowell starting to turn toward away from an adherence to formal structures and rhythm, and towards what became known as Confessional poetry, a mode that mined the personal life and emotions of the poet, often focusing on personal crises and past trauma. While Bishop greatly respected Lowell as a poet and had a warm personal relationship with him, she was adamantly against this new mode, sometimes chiding Lowell for invading the privacy of those close to him in his work.