Detail, Detail, Detail
Bishop is known for her finely tuned and precise poems. In a Bishop poem, every word matters. She is a master of detailed description. She doesn't just tell us that she's reading National Geographic, she tells us the date of the issue. She doesn't just talk about the knees of the patients in the waiting room, she tells us about their "shadowy gray knees." Outer space isn't black, it's "blue-black." This woman knows how to create a world in her poems.