Merida from the Roof
This view of Merida is the jacket illustration for The Complete
Poems: 1927-1979. ("The branches of the date-palms look like
files.") (Benton, 26-27)
Lamp
The inscription reads: For Lota: /Longer
than Alladin's burns, /Love, & many Happy Returns /March 16th, 1952
/ Elizabeth. From a prominent Brazilian family,
Lota (Maria Carlota Costellat de Macedo Soares) was Bishop's lover from
1952 until her suicide in 1967, This painting, with its implication
of wishes granted and darkness banished (and its pun on "touching"), dates
from their first year together. (Benton, 60-61)
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Anjinhos
--Anjinhos (angels) was inspired by the drowning of a young
girl in Rio de Janeiro. Both it and, to a lesser extent, Feather
Box recall the work of Joseph Cornell--his "Monuments to every moment,"
as Bishop translates the phrase, in her version of Octavio Paz's poem "Objects
& Apparitions." (Benton, 50-51)
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