Hear How the Imagery Aestheticises?': Elizabeth Bishop, Mark Doty and the Dangers of Aesthetic Appropriation.

Abstract

This essay explores the process through which a subject is sublimated into poetry in the work of Mark Doty and Elizabeth Bishop. This leads to an examination of the limits imposed by poetic texts, demonstrating the writers’ concern with the inevitable reduction which occurs as complex, three-dimensional beings are transfigured into a textual surface that can only provide the illusion of depth.