Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

Page 1 of 7

DOCUMENT

SCORE

elizabeth bishop

93 of 100
ISSUES FOUND IN THIS TEXT

35
Contextual Spelling

Mixed Dialects of English

Misspelled Words

Grammar

Determiner Use (a/an/the/this, etc.)

Wrong or Missing Prepositions

Faulty Subject-Verb Agreement

Incorrect Verb Forms

Punctuation

Comma Misuse within Clauses

Sentence Structure

Style

13

Passive Voice Misuse

Inappropriate Colloquialisms

Wordy Sentences

Vocabulary enhancement
Word Choice

15
15

No errors

Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

Page 2 of 7

elizabeth bishop
Elizabeth Bishop lived a life full of deaths and losses,
all of which affected her being. She was born in
Massachusetts on February 9, 1911, and from a young
age, she had to learn how to cope with her struggles.
Elizabeth was the daughter and only child of William
Thomas Bishop and Gertrude Bishop but ended up
losing both at a young age. After the deaths, she went

[ Inconsistent spelling ]

Preposition at the end of a sentence

Better word pair

Passive voice

to live with her maternal grandparents in Nova Scotia

and afterwards 1 went to live with her aunt and uncle
outside of Boston. She never had a stable home and
environment, and faced many health problems at a
young age, causing her to miss school often. She
would use this free time to read, write, and become
familiar with poetry. Elizabeth Bishop's interpersonal
relationships affected her writing.
Losing a mother and father at a young age is quite
grieving and devastating. Bishop had to deal with the
loss of her father due to kidney disease. Her mother's
reaction to the death caused her to go psychotic and
breakdown, and she was led to a hospital and asylum
when Gertrude Bishop died. She started losing
important relationships at a young age, and losing
plenty of relationships was something she had to
adjust to 2. In "One Art," she talks about how losing 3
things was never difficult for her because she was
used 4 to losing things, no matter how bearing. She
says, "I lost my mother's watch. And look! My / last,
or / next-to-last, of three loved houses went. / The art
of losing isn't hard to master" (Bishop 12-15).
Primarily, she lost her parents, but having to shift
from home to home, caused instability in her life. She
was always moving and going everywhere, leaving
people she had once known and loved. It's become

Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

Page 3 of 7

somewhat of a trend and tendency for her to lose

things, and nobody should get used to it, but she was
at a young age. She had to deal with her parent's

[ Incorrect verb form ]

Repetitive word: poem

[ Misspelled word: gose ]

Better word pair

Repetitive word: poem

death, unstable homes and health at a young age.

Because she's had to go through that at such a
youthful age, she wrote about dealing with it. Not only
was it therapeutic, but also writing was a way to tell
her story. It was as if her writing was the only stability
she had in her life, something she simply had control
over. She was moved 5 around from place to place,
having no say in what she was doing, but with her
writing, she had that voice. Bishop's writing was
something she could have and do to provide that
security and assurance in her life. However, Bishop
wouldn't have been as successful as she was, without
the help of her friends.
Bishop had several friends that helped her have such a
successful career like Marianne Moore, Robert
Lowell, and Louis Crane. Crane assisted Bishop
financially and helped get her papers and writings
published. In "Letter to N.Y." by Elizabeth Bishop, she
says, "nevertheless I'd like to know / what you are
doing and where you are going" (Bishop 24-25). Bishop
watches out for Louis, and she even writes this poem
to show how much she cares. Bishop always had a big
heart and seemed to care for each of her loved ones
tremendously. In the poem 6 , she said, "taking cabs in
the middle of the night, / driving as if to save your
soul/ where the road gose 7 round and round the park
/ and the meter glares like a moral 8 owl" (Bishop 4-7).
For many people, a calming mechanism is to drive
around, especially late at night when thoughts become
too overwhelming. Driving can sometimes just clear
the mind, and create peace. In these lines of the poem,
she seems to write about Crane struggling with her

10

Repetitive word: writing

Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

Page 4 of 7

thoughts, and that could be what's influencing the

poem 9 in the first place. She uses this set of writing to
check up on her friend because she knows what it's

11

Preposition at the end of a sentence

12

[ Redundant words ]

13

Passive voice

14

Weak adjective: happy

15

Repetitive word: love

16

Better word pair

17

Wordiness

like to struggle. In her writing 10, she wrote about

several people to show her love. Another close friend,
Robert Lowell, praised Bishop's work and was a huge
fan of all of her work. Lowell invited her to teach
English at Harvard, and that's where she ended up
working for a portion of her life. Lastly, Marianne
Moore was very influential in Bishop's life, and they
met when Bishop was attending Vassar. She got
Elizabeth to give up her medical dreams, and become
a writer because she felt as if Bishop had the
knowledge, talent, and writing skills to go far. Moore
instantly became one of Bishop's biggest mentors and
helped teach her to strive for what she's most capable
of 11. If it weren't for Moore, Bishop might not have
been successful as she was, especially when it came to
writing and publishing her work.
Elizabeth Bishop was a lesbian and very passionate
about feminism and spreading the awareness of
feminism. She acknowledged the beauty in feminine
and ended up having many women love interests in
her life. Her most valuable and important love interest
was the relationship she had with Lota Soares. In
"Close, Close All Night," a poem written by Elizabeth
Bishop, she states, "Close, close all night / the lovers
keep. / They turn together in their sleep, / Close as
two pages / in a book / that read each other / in the
dark. / Each knows all / the other knows, / learned by
heart / from head to toes." In this poem, Bishop talks
about a relationship where both partners can read
each other better than anyone. They are fit so
perfectly together that they know each other
completely, and are able to 12 express their emotions

Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

Page 5 of 7

quite clearly. Bishop seems to be talking directly about

Lota because their relationship was healthy in the

18

Passive voice

19

Passive voice

20

[ Redundant indefinite article ]

21

Possibly confused preposition

22

[ Incorrect verb form with personal pronoun ]

23

Preposition at the end of a sentence

die and felt no need to live anymore. Not only that,

24

[ Redundant words ]

Soares suffered the instability their relationship had

25

Overused word: certain

become to form. Everything became too

26

Repetitive word: leave

overwhelming, and it ended up getting the best of her.

27

Repetitive word: places

beginning. Soares ended up declaring her love for

Bishop, and the feelings were mutually returned 13 .
They lived together in a house in Brazil and came to
love the country, culture, and people there. They two
were very happy 14 with each other, and they sincerely
did love 15 each other. They had a healthy 16
connection, and they both helped each other in
sufficient amount of ways, especially mentally. In "The
Breakfast Song" by Bishop, she says, "Today I love
you so / how can I bear to go / (as soon I must, I
know) / to bed with ugly death / in that cold, filthy
place, / to sleep there without you" (Bishop 6-11). 17 She
talks about how when she's with Lota she is happy,
and nothing can change that moment there with her
love. When they're separated, she can't bear to sleep
without her. Suddenly the atmosphere becomes
suffocating, and she can't breathe. Soares made sure
to help nurse Bishop back to health; however, Soares
quickly became distracted due to a big project she was
finishing up. She failed the project, and it ended up
hurting her mental health. Soares was diagnosed 18
with arteriosclerosis, and she started drinking heavily
to mend the pain. The doctors thought that the best
way to improve things was for the two of them to be
separated 19 from each other. Soares ended up
overdosing, and she died from suicide. In the poem,
she also says, "Nobody wants to die; / tell me it is a
lie! / But no, I know it's true" (Bishop 15-17). It's hard
to accept the fact that the person you loved wanted to

Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

Page 6 of 7

In "One Art" by Bishop, she says, "Even losing you (the

joking voice, a gesture 20 / I love) I shan't have lied. It's
evident / the art of losing's not too hard to master /
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster" (Bishop
__). These were the last few lines in 21 the poem, and it

28

Overused word: certain

seemed to be as if it was the last straw. Things were

29

Repetitive word: places

becoming too much and too overwhelming, and she

30

Overused word: certain

The more relationships that ended, the more it'd

31

Repetitive word: regularly

affect her life geographical wise and traveling wise. In

32

Preposition at the end of a sentence

her writing, one could see that change. In the poem,

33

[ Missing comma in a series ]

34

Passive voice

35

[ Possible wordiness ]

lost her love. She acts like it's no big deal when she's
probably saying that to make herself feel better. It's
like she has no expectations or hope 22 that something
will stay permanent, and she seems to be talking
directly to her readers at this point. Don't hold on to
something because nothing lasts forever. She's had to
get used to losing things left and right, and losing
these things faster than other people usually have to
deal with 23 .

"One Art," she says, "Then practice losing farther,

losing faster: / places, and names, and where it was
you meant / to travel. None of these will bring
disaster" (Bishop ___). Once she started losing people,
she would start losing the places that had some kind
of 24 connection to those certain 25 relationships. She
had to leave Massachusetts once both of her parents
died, had to leave 26 several places 27 like Nova Scotia
to live with other family members in whom she would
grow another relationship with, and she had to leave
Brazil once Lota passed away. She goes on to say in
the poem, "I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent" (Bishop
___). Each place would have a certain 28 connection to
each relationship. She would write about living in
these certain places 29 with these certain 30 people.

Grammarly

Report generated on Mon, 16 May 2016 17:09

Grammarly

All in all,
Elizabeth Bishop was born on February 9, 1911, and
was the only child of Gertrude Bishop and William
Bishop. She was born in Worcester, Massachusetts,
but didn't stay for long because she was later moved
to Nova Scotia to live with her maternal grandparents
after her parents' deaths. Because she wouldn't attend
school regularly due to frail health conditions, she had
much time on her hands to read and write. Bishop
regularly 31 moved around which provided an unstable
environment for her to grow up in 32. She attended
Vassar College and finally published her first volume
of work, North 33 and South, in 1946. She wrote about
the relationships she had with her parents, friends,
and love interests, and how each relationship affected
her in numerous ways. The interpersonal relations
she had with these people influenced the way she
wrote and what she wrote specifically about. She died
in 1979 because of a brain aneurysm but continues to
be exemplified 34 for her remarkable work. Bishop is
one of the best American Writers of the 20th century
and was a huge activist for the growth of our nation in
terms of

35

equality.

Page 7 of 7