18 pages • 36 minutes read
Elizabeth BishopCrusoe in England
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth (1804)
Commonly called “Daffodils,” William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” plays a significant role in Bishop’s “Crusoe In England.” Bishop’s Crusoe recites two lines of Wordsworth’s poem: “They flash upon that inward eye, / which is the bliss…” (Lines 96-97). The word Crusoe fails to recall is “solitude” (Line 22), which he also discovers upon his return to England. These lines, incidentally, are Wordsworth’s favorite in the poem and were contributed by his wife Mary.
“Robinson Crusoe’s Story” by Charles E. Carryl (1885)
Charles E. Carryl was one of the most celebrated children’s authors of the late 19th century. “Robinson Crusoe’s Story” is a narrative poem that recounts the major events of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. This poem, unlike Bishop’s, stays very close to the original text. Carryl’s retelling is indicative of the way the generation of poets before Bishop integrate well-known stories into their works.
“Skunk Hour” By Robert Lowell (1956)
Robert Lowell was Bishop’s contemporary and one of Bishop’s closest literary friends. “Skunk Hour,” written in response to Bishop’s poem “The Armadillo,” shows Lowell trying to imitate Bishop’s style. Though formally similar to “The Armadillo,” Lowell’s poem fudges Bishop’s unique and often telescopic perspective. Rather than engaging with the poem’s subjects, Lowell’s speaker remains at the level of thought and impression. “Skunk Hour,” therefore, provides perspective on how Bishop’s contemporaries wrote and how Bishop is unique among them.
“Arrival at Santos” by Elizabeth Bishop (1965)
Part of the “Brazil” section of 1965’s Questions of Travel, “Arrival at Santos” complements “Crusoe in England.” While both poems deal with the speaker’s arrival to an unfamiliar place, they approach the subject in different ways. “Arrival at Santos” is unconcerned with the descriptions of nature that make up a large part of “Crusoe in England.” The speakers’ disposition toward their respective arrivals is also much different between the poems. “Crusoe” places emphasis on the speaker’s discomfort in England and the end of his travels, while “Arrival in Santos” treats Santos as the beginning of new adventures as the speaker is “driving to the interior” or Brazil (Line 40).
“One Art” By Elizabeth Bishop (1976)
“One Art” is among Bishop’s best-known poems and is one of the most celebrated villanelles in the English language. Bishop often turned toward restrictive forms such as the villanelle, which has repeated lines, a strict rhyme pattern, and a fixed line count. Through her skillful accommodation of these restrictions, Bishop demonstrates her flexibility as a poet in “One Art.” This poem was published alongside “Crusoe in England” in 1976’s Geography III. Like many poems from this last collection, both “One Art” and “Crusoe in England” focus on loss and solitude.
Further Literary Resources
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719)
Daniel Defoe’s The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe has served as the inspiration for countless works of literature, including Bishop’s “Crusoe in England.” One of the earliest English novels, the book is an autobiography of the fictional Robinson Crusoe, an English sailor who spends 28 years as a castaway. Bishop’s poem imagines Crusoe’s discontent upon his return to England. Many of the plants, animals, and natural images that Bishop draws upon play significant roles in Defoe’s account of Crusoe’s survival.
“Elizabeth Bishop and Modern American Poetry” by Jonathan Ellis (2005)
Johnathan Ellis’s article provides perspective on Bishop’s place among her fellow post-war American poets. Unlike many American poets of the post-war period, Bishop’s reputation only grew after her death. Ellis explores possible reasons for this phenomenon and gives a readable account of Bishop’s reception.
“Bunyan, Defoe, and the Novel” by Peter Leithart (2005)
This scholarly article by Peter Leithart explores the influence of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Defoe’s The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe on Western European literature. Leithart argues, in part, that Defoe’s mixture of Crusoe’s interior dialogue with his practical, immediate concerns helped develop new literary forms such as the novel. This new emphasis on the character’s interior life later influenced lyrical forms of poetry and persona poems, which take on an imagined speaker distinct from the poet themselves.
“Desert island risks: Robinson Crusoe at 300” by Brian Maye (2019)
Like Liethart’s article, Brian Maye looks back to Defoe’s The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe as a major innovation in narrative fiction. Instead of focusing the work’s influence on the novel, however, Maye looks at the broader cultural influence of Robinson Crusoe. Three hundred years after its original publication, Maye gives an overview of art and artists inspired by Defoe’s work. Some of the works mentioned, such as the 1967 French novel Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique by Michel Tournier, take a similar approach to Bishop and explore Crusoe’s disinterest in civilization.
Listen to Poem
This recording of Bishop reading “Crusoe in England” exemplifies her style of delivery. Bishop tends to recite her works in a slow monotone, allowing the words to speak for themselves. Her precise pronunciation and slight accent gives a sense of the words’ assonance and consonance.
Related Titles
By Elizabeth Bishop
