God and Elizabeth Bishop

CHERYL WALKER is the Richard Armour Professor of Modern Languages at Scripps College, USA and the author of a book on nineteenth-century Native American literature (Indian Nation) and several books on American women poets, including The Nightingale's Burden: Women Poets and American Culture Before 1900 (winner of a Choice Award for 1983) and Masks Outrageous and Austere: Culture, Psyche, and Persona in Modern Women Poets.

In God and Elizabeth Bishop Cheryl Walker takes the bold step of looking at the work of Elizabeth Bishop as though it might have something fresh to say about religion and poetry.In God and Elizabeth Bishop Cheryl Walker takes the bold step of looking at the work of Elizabeth Bishop as though it might have something fresh to say about religion and poetry. Going wholly against the tide of recent academic practice, especially as applied to Bishop, she delights in presenting herself as an engaged Christian who nevertheless believes that a skeptical modern poet might feed our spiritual hungers. This is a book that reminds us of the rich tradition of religious poetry written in English, at the same time taking delicious detours into realms of humour, social responsibility, and mysticism.