Elizabeth Bishop did not count herself as an adherent of any poetic school or movement, and she did not espouse any particular poetic philosophy, preferring instead to let her poetry speak for itself. She was certainly influenced by other poets, however, both past and contemporary, and she maintained close lifelong friendships with two of the most important American poets of the 20th century, Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell. Bishop names among her chief early influences George Herbert (1593-1633), an English Metaphysical poet, and Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), an English Victorian poet who straddled the Romantic and Modernist movements.

Hopkins, himself influenced by the earlier Metaphysical poets, was a unique poetic voice. Like Bishop, he wanted to be a painter rather than a poet. Hopkins’ love of art, that striving to represent the physical world and the world of nature, had direct implications on his poetry. He believed that the key to understanding hidden connections and patterns was through keen observation. Some of his main poetic trademarks are minutely detailed, highly original word pictures of the world around him; a belief that nature reveals religious truths; and a Victorian approach to uniting science and aesthetics. The contemplative, observational stance of Hopkins’ poetry, as well as his insistence on finding the precise words and fresh, surprising images for natural phenomena greatly appealed to Bishop.