The Shampoo By Elizabeth Bishop (Grades 7-9)

Elizabeth Bishop was an artist in the 1900's. She is known to be able to catch significant scenes in a dramatically effective way. Bishop is a queer artist, some called her the lesbian poet. She attended Walnut School for the Arts which is an elite program in order to get her degree of arts. Her piece Shampoo is a lot poem about her and her partner taking a bath and taking care of each other. The poem is short but captures a lot of emotions in that one picture. The piece is a metaphor for time and includes the imagery of nature. She implores this through the washing of her partners hair. The line “They have arranged to meet the rings around the moon, although within our memories they have not changed,” talks about how their memories will last despite their time together slowly fading.