Refining Connection through Detachment: Deictic Shifts in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poems

Abstract

Elizabeth Bishop’s poems are characterized by the observer’s detachment in the description. In her poems, the observer usually concentrates on the details of object s and tries to rise above the immediate context , thus refining a new connection between self and the world. By analyzing the spatial and relational shift s in Bishop’s poe ms, this study argues that the dei ctic shift not only presents the change of cognition in the observer’s mind but also helps the observer shape the perception and enter into the imagined world.