“Shards of Childhood Memory,” in Pembroke Magazine, No. 22, 1990, pp. 68-76.

In the following essay, Henning discusses Bishop's techniques of exploring aspects of her childhood in her poetry.

“… we cover the universe with drawings we have lived.” (12)

—Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics Of Space

Bishop's practice offered Lowell a model of how to take intensely imaged shards of childhood memory and assemble them in both prose and poetry. (421)

—Helen McNeil, Voices and Visions, Edited by Helen Vendler

Loss and memory earmark much of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry and prose pieces with a particular poignancy that transcends the personal. Spurred by a heartfelt longing for home, for loved ones, for roots she was deprived of through separation from her parents at an early age, Bishop takes both herself and the reader on board a train that travels the span of her life—the geography of her observations. And because she never wallows...