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  • The American Scholar

    Questions of Inspiration

    Dec 02, 2019 4 minutes

    Review by Rachel Hadas

    LOVE UNKNOWN: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop

    BY THOMAS TRAVISANO

    Viking, 432 pp., $32

    WHAT IS THE RELATION between a poet’s life and art? A young Elizabeth Bishop offered the following advice: “The best way to understand Shelley is to read part of his biography and then read his poems that were written during the same period of his life.” Thomas Travisano’s study of Bishop, implicitly invites us to follow this advice. To get the most out of his book, it’s best to keep a copy of Bishop’s works at hand and to consult each poem that

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