Elizabeth Bishop resisted being gendered and aimed for objectivity, sometimes using scientific language in poems - but 'The Shampoo' is a poem about love.
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) is regarded as an American poet, although by birth she was Canadian. She was raised by her maternal grandparents after her father's early death of kidney disease when she was eight. The tragedy was followed by her mother's mental ill-health and hospitalisation in 1916 until her death in 1934. Later, she lived with her father's parents in Massachusetts and also with a much-loved aunt.
