Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing

Elizabeth Bishop and The Art of Losing, a new, feature-length documentary directed and narrated by John D. Scott, begins by citing Bishop’s own introduction to the mid-career poem, “At the Fishhouses”: “This is a Nova Scotian poem.” Scott’s unspoken thesis in this film is that Bishop is a Nova Scotian poet, or at least a poet who never left Nova Scotia imaginatively even as she travelled and settled elsewhere. Images from Great Village and recreated scenes from her childhood bookend the film. Scott, following Nova Scotian biographer Sandra Barry’s lead, corrects the chauvinistic impression still present in some accounts of Bishop’s life that Great Village was backward or provincial. The sound of Bishop’s maternal grandparents reading Robbie Burns aloud or playfully making everyday activities rhyme (“Vaseline / gasoline”) demonstrates where Bishop’s poetic gifts began. Viewers hoping for a chance to see the Bulmer house where Bishop lived with her...