"Elizabeth, you should have"

Item

Merrill, James, “"Elizabeth, you should have"”, Circa winter 1992, James Merrill: Life and Archive, accessed February 11, 2026, https://digitalexhibits.library.wustl.edu/s/james-merrill-life-and-archive/item/38519

Title: "Elizabeth, you should have"
Description: A three-page draft of an unfinished, untitled poem from winter 1992 addressing Elizabeth Bishop. It is an "uncharacteristically awkward" but powerful poem about "raw life" prevailing over "graceful art."
Subject: Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Creator: Merrill, James
Source: James Merrill Papers (MSS083) - Box 130, Folder 3147
Relation: Series_IV_Manuscripts; Exhibit Cases 9-10: Love and Death; James Merrill Life and Art, pp. 759-60; See also See also Merrill reading "The Victor Dog" (dedicated to Bishop) and Bishop's "One Art" and October 8 & 10, 1979 Séances
Format: 3 leaves. Recto.; 3 jpegs. 600 dpi.
Language: English
Type: Manuscript
Date: Circa winter 1992
Rights Holder: Washington University in St. Louis
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Identifier: Elizabeth_You_Should_Have_001.jpg
Elizabeth_You_Should_Have_002.jpg
Elizabeth_You_Should_Have_003.jpg

Item sets: Merrill; Merrill Life Archive

Site pages: Love and Death - Manuscripts

Media: Elizabeth_You_Should_Have_001.jpg; Elizabeth_You_Should_Have_002.jpg; Elizabeth_You_Should_Have_003.jpg