Elizabeth Bishop Research Paper

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Elizabeth Bishop was born on February 8th, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts into a wealthy New England family. When Bishop was only 8 months old her father passed away and then five years later her mother “suffered from bouts of mental instability, was permanently admitted to a mental asylum” (Russell). From there on, Bishop was sent to live with many different family relatives, first happily and secure with her maternal grandparents in Great Village, Nova Scotia. During, her stay with her maternal grandparents, her paternal grandparents started to “expressed concerns about the limited resources for the child’s education” (Russell). She was then sent to live very briefly and very unhappily with her paternal grandparents back in Worcester, Massachusetts where her relationship with her paternal grandparents “was not particularly warm” (Russell). She was finally sent to live with a favorite aunt until she was old enough to go to boarding school (Spires).
During 1935 to 1937, Bishop spent her time traveling to France, Spain, North Africa, Ireland, Italy, and then finally settling down in Key West, Florida (Spires). But, despite having delightful observations, Bishop lead a “peripatetic, lonely …show more content…

Bishop and Lota met while Bishop was in New York and later invited Lota on Bishop’s journey that later turned into a vacation to Brazil. While Bishop was visiting Brazil, she suffered from an extreme allergic reaction to a cashew fruit. There, Lota helped nurse Bishop back to health and invited her to stay in Brazil (Russell). The two fell in loved and Bishop stayed with her for the next 15 years. During the 1960’s however, Bishop’s relationship with Lota started to deteriorate and it eventually ended with Lota committing suicide in 1967. She was overworked and exhausted from working on a huge park project in

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