18 pages • 36 minutes read
Sandpiper
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop (1946)
Like “the Sandpiper,” “The Fish” describes an animal in extensive detail. However, the speaker of “The Fish” interacts with the animal, catches it on her line and releases it, while the speaker of “Sandpiper” only observes the titular bird. Catching the fish allows the speaker to see many more details on its body but takes it outside of its natural environment. In contrast, the speaker of “Sandpiper” sees the bird from such a distance that she has to correct herself about one detail (what the bird is looking at). However, this distance allows her to include the bird in the context of his home, rather than out of place.
“The Armadillo” by Elizabeth Bishop (1957)
This is another poem from the book in which “Sandpiper” appears: Questions of Travel. Though the poem was originally published in The New Yorker in 1957, Bishop dedicated it to poetic inspiration and friend Robert Lowell in 1965. While the sandpiper runs along the shoreline—the intersection of water and earth—the armadillo witnesses the intersection of humans and the natural world. Bishop describes the armadillo leaving the scene where people’s fire balloons fall to the earth. This is a moment of “panic,” a word that appears in both poems.
“Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake (1863)
Bishop alludes to this poem in “Sandpiper.” It was published after Blake's death and appears in the Pickering Manuscript in his handwriting, rather than as a print, as many of his poems were. This poem is widely popular, appearing in many works of pop culture as well as a literary allusion in poetry.
“Pigeons” by Marianne Moore (1935)
Moore deeply influenced Bishop as her lifelong friend after they met at Vassar. “Pigeons” showcases some of the similarities between the two poets. It is also a detailed description of an animal. However, Moore’s poem looks at pigeons in different historical contexts, where Bishop’s poem focuses on a single moment in time (as well as eternity).
Further Literary Resources
Lecture at Yale University by Professor Langdon Hammer (2007)
This is a session of the Yale University course Modern Poetry (ENGL 310). It covers several of Bishop's poems, including the “Sandpiper.” Professor Hammer reads “Sandpiper” as “a meditation on the challenges of locating coherence in a shifting world.” In the YouTube description, there is a link to more information about this class (and others) through the Open Yale Courses program.
Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker by The University of Chicago’s Poem Present Lecture Series (2011)
Stephen Young from the Poetry Foundation introduces the lecture, and the curated letter exchanges between Elizabeth Bishop and the editors of The New Yorker magazine are read by Linda Kimbrough, Suzanne Petri, and others. “Sandpiper” is one of Bishop’s poems that was published in The New Yorker.
“Elizabeth Bishop’s Aviary” by Mark Ford (2007)
This is an article from the London Review of Books. It covers several of Bishop’s poems about birds, including “Sandpiper.” Ford discusses poems about birds by other English Romantics, like Shelley and Keats, and contrasts their work with Bishop’s poetry. This builds on the literary context of Bishop’s primary inspiration for the “Sandpiper,” Romantic poet William Blake.
“Piper” by Pixar (2016)
This short, Academy Award-winning film was shown in theaters before Pixar’s feature film Finding Dory. It is a depiction of sandpipers on the beach, offering visual context for readers of Bishop’s poem. The short emphasizes the fear of the roaring ocean and shows both the sandpiper's feeding style and the shoreline microbiome of shellfish that they prey on.
Listen to Poem
As part of his pandemic poems project, English actor, director, and voice actor Samuel West recites Bishop’s poem.
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By Elizabeth Bishop
