Elizabeth Bishop and ‘a bad case of the Threes’

This chapter explores aspects of Bishop’s poetics through the lens of the number three, contributing to the debate about Bishop’s place as a ‘lyric’ poet. It does this by charting the myriad ways Bishop used the number three and all its connotations in her poetry. These range from her use of the tercet form to a structural manipulation of time and perspective. Threes are everywhere in Bishop, ranging from the influence of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Holy Trinity and Dante to ekphrastic notions of shadow boxes in ‘Objects & Apparitions’. That three underpins Bishop’s aphoristic ear is most clearly heard in her prose and letters, for example in her famous statement that ‘The three qualities I admire in the poetry I like best are: Accuracy, Spontaneity, Mystery’ (in ‘Writing Poetry is an Unnatural Act’). Bishop scholars and readers often identify with the quality of reticence in her poetry, often referred to as ‘the other’ or the ‘third space’ where the reader can find or suggest meaning between the hidden and the said. What is less commonly acknowledged is that the threes can also be constructed to create a safe place in which to allow dangerous emotions or thoughts to be expressed.