Elizabeth Bishop's Memorial Service (1979) Now Digitized at the Woodberry Poetry Room

Chemin de Fer. "There's always a pool parlor wherever one goes," wrote Elizabeth Bishop. Morning. Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room has just finished digitizing and editing the recording of Memorial Service for Elizabeth Bishop, which struck in 1979 and featured readings and reminiscences by John Ashbery, Frank Bidart, Alice Methfessel, Octavio Paz, Lloyd Schwartz, Helen Vendler and others (but her lifelong friend Robert Lowell died in 1977), as well as sung hymns by mezzo-soprano Jane Struss. You can listen now at the Poetry Room's Listening Booth. You'll also find there two readings from Bishop, one from 1947, the other 1978.

Happy listening!