Elizabeth Bishop

Location: Section 49

Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Olson and Stanley Kunitz — three major twentieth century poets — were all born in Worcester. Although Bishop left Worcester as a young girl, "the city and its haunting memories" influenced her work which was described as "vivid and passionate." Kunitz once recalled Bishop saying she was born in Worcester “quite by accident and did not linger long." Bishop died in 1979, but it was not until the 1997 Elizabeth Bishop Conference and Poetry Festival in Worcester that her inscription and the words 'All the untidy activity continues, awful but cheerful" (once requested by Bishop for her tombstone) were added to the family monument.