“Elizabeth Bishop and Revision: A Spiritual Act,” in American Poetry Review, Vol. 25, No. 2, March-April, 1996, pp. 43-50.

In the following essay, Mann examines early drafts of Bishop's poetry to understand her thoughts on revision.

I have always been rather fond of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry. Bishop's work, like Robert Frost's best, has an apparent simplicity that belies a greater depth beneath. It was my need to understand this greater depth and how she managed it that led me to Bishop's papers and drafts in Vassar College Library's special collection.

To understand Bishop's approach to revision, one must first understand her poetics and what influences formed her attitudes concerning poetry. Unlike other poets whose work changed dramatically over the course of their lives, changes that came as their beliefs and understanding of poetry changed, Bishop's beliefs remained essentially the same; it was her application of these beliefs to her poetry that...