The Poet As Map-Maker: The Cartographic Inspiration and Influence of Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Map”

• Main Author: Haft, Adele J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: North American Cartographic Information Society 2001
• Subjects: Poetry about Maps; Map/Geography Education; Poets as Cartographers; Pulitzer; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/view/cp38-haft

New Year’s Eve of 1934 found Elizabeth Bishop recuperating from the flu. Out of her isolation, the recently orphaned 23-year-old created “The Map.” Inspired by a map’s depiction of the North Atlantic, Bishop’s exquisite poem alludes in part to the “seashore towns” and coastal waters of her childhood...