Elizabeth Bishop’s Aviary 
Mark Ford
The earliest poem collected in Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box, Alice Quinn’s edition of Elizabeth Bishop’s miscellaneous drafts and fragments, opens:
I introduce Penelope Gwin,
A friend of mine through thick and thin,
Who’s travelled much in foreign parts
Pursuing culture and the arts.
‘And also,’ says Penelope
‘This family life is not for me.
I find it leads to deep depression
And I was born for self expression.’[*]
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Mark Ford’s collections of poetry are Landlocked and Soft Sift. He teaches at University College London.
Other articles by this contributor:
Red makes wrong · Harry Mathews
Love and Theft · plagiarism
The Style It Takes · John Cale
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