W. S. Merwin

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William Stanley Merwin

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(born Sept. 30, 1927, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. poet and translator. He attended Princeton University and earned critical acclaim with his first poetry collection, A Mask for Janus (1952). He became known for the spare style of his poetry, which often expresses concerns about the natural environment and our relation to it. His volumes include The Lice (1967), The Carrier of Ladders (1970, Pulitzer Prize), Travels (1993), and The Shadow of Sirius (2008, Pulitzer Prize). His translations, often collaborations with others, range from plays of Euripides and Federico Garca Lorca to epics to ancient and modern works from Chinese, Sanskrit, and Japanese. Merwin also wrote several memoirs, including Summer Doorways (2006). From 1999 to 2000 he servedwith Rita Dove and Louise Glckas special bicentennial poet laureate consultant to the Library of Congress. He again served as poet laureate from 2010 to 2011.

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Merwin, W. S. (William Stanley Merwin), 1927-, American poet and translator, b. New York City. After graduating from Princeton in 1948, he traveled in Europe, working as a tutor and studying romance languages, a period described many years later in his memoir Summer Doorways (2005). He has lived in Hawaii since 1976. Merwin is noted for his restrained, spare, sometimes remote, often elegiac, and always finely wrought verse. His poetry frequently focuses on nature and the human response to it as well as on memory and mortality. It embodies a contemplative engagement with myth and religious vision and often expresses an overwhelming sense of loss. His many volumes of poetry include A Mask for Janus (1952), The Moving Target (1963), Lice (1967), The Carrier of Ladders (1970; Pulitzer Prize), Opening the Hand (1983), Selected Poems (1988), Travels (1993), The River Sound (1999), The Pupil (2002), and The Shadow of Sirius (2009; Pulitzer Prize). Merwin is also well known for his translations, among them The Cid (1959) and The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes (1962). He was named poet laureate of the United States in 2010.

Bibliography

See his memoir of childhood, Unframed Originals (1982, repr. 1994, 2005); studies by C. Davis (1981), M. Christhif (1986), C. Nelson and E. Folsom, ed. (1987), E. J. Brunner (1991), H. L. Hix (1997), J. Frazier (1999), and H. Bloom, ed. (2004).

(b. 1927)

1952A Mask for Janus. Merwin's first collection, issued in the Yale Series of Younger Poets, shows his characteristic use of traditional form, symbolism, and mythical motifs. His theme of the universal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is echoed in the two volumes that would follow--The Dancing Bear (1954) and Green with Beasts (1956).
1956Green with Beasts. Merwin's third collection displays a noticeable shift from narrative to lyric and from the mythological to the personal in poems such as "Leviathan," "The Annunciation," and "The Prodigal Son." Poet Richard Howard notes the difference between Merwin's previous recounting of experience and this volume's dwelling inside experience.
1960The Drunk in the Furnace. This is the first of Merwin's collections to show a shift of style, incorporating more colloquial language and metrical irregularities as well as more personal subjects.
1963The Moving Target. Merwin's collection of increasingly personal poems contemplate self-alienation and show a loosening of previous formal conventions, including discordant rhythms, informal diction, and a lack of punctuation.
1967The Lice. Merwin's most highly acclaimed collection, and one of the most admired works of the postwar period, is a series of surrealistic lyrics that capture the spirit of the age. They include "The Gods," "The Finding of Reasons," "The Last One," and perhaps Merwin's most famous poem, "For the Anniversary of My Death."
1970The Carrier of Ladders. Merwin receives the Pulitzer Prize for this collection, which contains important poems such as "Midnight in Early Spring" and "Lemuel's Blessing." The volume also contains a sequence on the westward expansion of the United States. Merwin also publishes The Miner's Pale Children, a collection of prose pieces.
1973Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment. Merwin's collection treats the theme of humanity's relationship to time and history.
1977The Compass Flower. The first of a series of collections showing the influence of classical Chinese poetry, including Feathers from a Hill (1978) and Finding the Islands (1982).
1994Travels. Merwin's collection features narrative poems based on historical figures such as Arthur Rimbaud, David Douglas, and Manuel Cordova. Other poems include "The Hill of Evening," "A Distance," "Another Place," and "Immortelles."

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W. S. Merwin
Born (1927-09-30) September 30, 1927 (age 84)
New York City
Occupation Poet
Nationality American
Education Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, PA 1944
Alma mater Princeton University
Period 1952–
Genres Poetry, prose, translation
Notable award(s) PEN Translation Prize
1969
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1971, 2009
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
1994
Tanning Prize
1994
National Book Award
2005
United States Poet Laureate
2010
Spouse(s) Dorothy Jeanne Ferry
Dido Milroy
Paula Schwartz (1983–present)

William Stanley Merwin (New York City, September 30, 1927) is an American poet, credited with over 30 books of poetry, translation and prose. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematically characterized by indirect, unpunctuated narration. In the 1980s and 1990s, Merwin's writing influence derived from his interest in Buddhist philosophy and deep ecology. Residing in Hawaii, he writes prolifically and is dedicated to the restoration of the islands' rainforests.

Merwin has received many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (in both 1971 and 2009)[1] and the Tanning Prize, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Academy of American Poets, as well as the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings. In 2010, the Library of Congress named Merwin the seventeenth United States Poet Laureate to replace the outgoing Kay Ryan.[2][3]

Contents

Early life

Merwin initially grew up on this street in Union City, New Jersey, which was renamed for him in 2006.

W. S. Merwin was born in New York City on September 30, 1927. He grew up on the corner of Fourth Street and New York Avenue in Union City, New Jersey until 1936, when his family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania. As a child, he was enamored of the natural world, sometimes finding himself talking to the large tree in his back yard. He was also fascinated with things that he saw as links to the past, such as the building behind his home that had once been a barn that housed a horse and carriage.[4] At the age of five he started writing out hymns for his father.[3]

Career

After attending Princeton University, Merwin married his first wife, Dorothy Jeanne Ferry, and moved to Spain. During his stay there, while visiting the renowned poet Robert Graves at his homestead on the island of Majorca, he served as tutor to Graves's son. There, he met Dido Milroy — fifteen years older than he — with whom he collaborated on a play and whom he later married and lived with in London. In 1956, Merwin moved to Boston for a fellowship at the Poets' Theater. He returned to London where he was friends with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. In 1968, Merwin moved to New York City, separating from his wife who stayed at their home in France. In the late 1970s, Merwin moved to Hawaii and eventually was divorced from Dido Milroy. He married Paula Schwartz in 1983.[5]

In 1952 Merwin's first book of poetry, A Mask for Janus, was published in the Yale Younger Poets Series. W. H. Auden selected the work for that distinction. Later, in 1971 Auden and Merwin would exchange harsh words in the pages of The New York Review of Books. Merwin had published "On Being Awarded the Pulitzer Prize" in the June 3, 1971, issue of The New York Review of Books outlining his objections to the Vietnam War and stating that he was donating his prize money to the draft resistance movement.

From 1956 to 1957 Merwin was also playwright-in-residence at the Poet's Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; he became poetry editor at The Nation in 1962. Besides being a prolific poet (he has published over fifteen volumes of his works), he is also a respected translator of Spanish, French, Latin and Italian poetry (including Dante's Purgatorio) as well as poetry from Sanskrit, Yiddish, Middle English, Japanese and Quechua. He also served as selector of poems of the late American poet Craig Arnold (1967–2009).[citation needed]

Merwin is probably best known for his poetry about the Vietnam War, and can be included among the canon of Vietnam War-era poets which includes such luminaries as Robert Bly, Adrienne Rich; Denise Levertov; Robert Lowell; Allen Ginsberg and Yusef Komunyakaa. In 1998, Merwin wrote Folding Cliffs: A Narrative, an ambitious novel-in-verse about Hawai`i in history and legend.[original research?]

Merwin's early subjects were frequently tied to mythological or legendary themes, while many of his poems featured animals. A volume called The Drunk in the Furnace (1960) marked a change for Merwin, in that he began to write in a much more autobiographical way.[citation needed] The title-poem is about Orpheus, seen as an old drunk. 'Where he gets his spirits / it's a mystery', Merwin writes; 'But the stuff keeps him musical'. Another poem of this period — 'Odysseus' — reworks the traditional theme in a way that plays off poems by Stevens and Graves on the same topic.

In the 1960s, Merwin lived in a small apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village,[4] and began to experiment boldly with metrical irregularity. His poems became much less tidy and controlled. He played with the forms of indirect narration typical of this period, a self-conscious experimentation explained in an essay called 'On Open Form' (1969). The Lice (1967) and The Carrier of Ladders (1970) remain his most influential volumes. These poems often used legendary subjects (as in 'The Hydra' or 'The Judgment of Paris') to explore highly personal themes.

In Merwin's later volumes — such as The Compass Flower (1977), Opening the Hand (1983), and The Rain in the Trees (1988) — one sees him transforming earlier themes in fresh ways, developing an almost Zen-like indirection. His latest poems are densely imagistic, dream-like, and full of praise for the natural world. He has lived in Hawaii since the 1970s, and one sees the influence of this tropical landscape everywhere in the recent poems, though the landscape remains emblematic and personal. Migration (Copper Canyon Press, 2005) won the 2005 National Book Award for poetry.[6] A life-long friend of James Wright, Merwin wrote an elegy to him that appears in the 2008 volume From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright.[original research?]

The Shadow of Sirius, published in 2008 by Copper Canyon Press, was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.[1]

In June 2010, the Library of Congress named Merwin the seventeenth United States Poet Laureate to replace the outgoing Kay Ryan.[2][3]

"Separation", Children's Memorial Grove plaque, San Leandro, California

Personal life

Today, Merwin lives a quiet life on a former pineapple plantation built atop a dormant volcano on the northeast coast of Maui.[2][3]

Awards

Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" or "[year] in literature" article:

Other accolades

Merwin's former home town of Union City, New Jersey honored him in 2006 by renaming a local street near his former home W.S. Merwin Way.[4]

Bibliography

Each year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" or "[year] in literature" article:

Poetry - collections

  • 1952: A Mask for Janus, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press; awarded the Yale Younger Poets Prize, 1952 (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)[7]
  • 1954: The Dancing Bears, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)[7]
  • 1956: Green with Beasts, New York: Knopf (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)[7]
  • 1960: The Drunk in the Furnace, New York: Macmillan (reprinted as part of The First Four Books of Poems, 1975)[7]
  • 1963: The Moving Target, New York: Atheneum[7]
  • 1966: Collected Poems, New York: Atheneum[7]
  • 1967: The Lice, New York: Atheneum
  • 1969: Animae, San Francisco: Kayak[7]
  • 1970: The Carrier of Ladders, New York: Atheneum;[7] —winner of the Pulitzer Prize[1]
  • 1970: Signs, illustrated by A. D. Moore; Iowa City, Iowa: Stone Wall Press[7]
  • 1973: Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment, New York: Atheneum[7]
  • 1975: The First Four Books of Poems, containing A Mask for Janus, The Dancing Bears, Green with Beasts, and The Drunk in the Furnace, New York: Atheneum; (reprinted in 2000, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press)[7]
  • 1977: The Compass Flower, New York: Atheneum[7]
  • 1978: Feathers From the Hill, Iowa City, Iowa: Windhover[7]
  • 1982: Finding the Islands, San Francisco: North Point Press[7]
  • 1983: Opening the Hand, New York: Atheneum[7]
  • 1988: The Rain in the Trees, New York: Knopf[7]
  • 1988: Selected Poems, New York: Atheneum[7]
  • 1993: The Second Four Books of Poems, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press
  • 1993: Travels: Poems, New York: Knopf[7] winner of the 1993 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize[9]
  • 1996: The Vixen: Poems, New York: Knopf[7]
  • 1997: Flower and Hand: Poems, 1977-1983 Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press[7]
  • 1998: The Folding Cliffs: A Narrative, a "novel-in-verse" New York: Knopf[13]
  • 1999: The River Sound: Poems, New York: Knopf[7]
  • 2001: The Pupil, New York: Knopf[7]
  • 2005: Migration: New and Selected Poems, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press[7] —winner of the National Book Award for Poetry[6]
  • 2005: Present Company, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press[7]
  • 2008: The Shadow of Sirius, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press[14] —winner of the Pulitzer Prize[1]

Poems

Prose

  • 1970: The Miner's Pale Children, New York: Atheneum (reprinted in 1994, New York: Holt)[7]
  • 1977: Houses and Travellers, New York: Atheneum (reprinted in 1994, New York: Holt)[7]
  • Regions of Memory
  • 1982: Unframed Originals: Recollections
  • 1992: The Lost Uplands: Stories of Southwest France, New York: Knopf
  • 2002: The Mays of Ventadorn, National Geographic Directions Series; Washington: National Geographic[7]
  • 2004: The Ends of the Earth, essays, Washington: Shoemaker & Hoard[7]
  • 2005: Summer Doorways: A Memoir
  • 2007: The Book of Fables, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press

Plays

  • 1956: Darkling Child (with Dido Milroy), produced this year[7]
  • 1957: Favor Island, produced this year at Poets' Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts (broadcast in 1958 by Third Programme, British Broadcasting Corporation)[7]
  • 1961: The Gilded West, produced this year at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, England[7]

Translations

Editor

  • 1961: West Wind: Supplement of American Poetry, London: Poetry Book Society[7]
  • 1996: Lament for the Makers: A Memorial Anthology (compiler), Washington: Counterpoint[7]

Other sources

Archives

Merwin's literary papers are held at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The collection, which is open to researchers, consists of some 5,500 archival items and 450 printed books.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Poetry". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  2. ^ a b c d Kennicott, Philip (July 1, 2010). "W.S. Merwin, Hawaii-based poet, will serve as 17th U.S. laureate". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/30/AR2010063005450.html. Retrieved July 1, 2010. 
  3. ^ a b c d Cohen, Patricia (June 30, 2010). "W. S. Merwin to Be Named Poet Laureate". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/books/01poet.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=w.s.%20merwin,%20laureate&st=cse. Retrieved July 9, 2010. 
  4. ^ a b c Diaz, Lana Rose. "Merwin Speaks"; The Union City Reporter; July 11, 2010; Pages 1 & 9
  5. ^ Smith, Dinitia (February 19, 1995). "A Poet of Their Own". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/04/specials/merwin-own.html. Retrieved March 30, 2010. 
  6. ^ a b c "National Book Awards – 2005". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
    (With acceptance speech by Merwin, essay by Patrick Rosal from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog, and other material.)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay Merwin biography at Poetry Foundation, Accessed October 23, 2010
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Brennan, Elizabeth A. and Elizabeth C. Clarage, "1971: W.S. Merwin" article, p 534, Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners Phoenix, Arizona: The Oryx Press (1999), ISBN 1-57356-111-8, retrieved via Google Books on June 8, 2010
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j News release, "Poet W.S. Merwin Reads at Library of Congress October 15, September 22, 1997, Library of Congress website, retrieved June 8, 2010
  10. ^ Routledge Staff (2003). International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004. Routledge. pp. 383. ISBN 1-85743-179-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=phhhHT64kIMC. Retrieved 2008-07-20. 
  11. ^ a b c W. S. Merwin at Barclay Agency, Accessed October 23, 2010
  12. ^ "The 2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners/Poetry", Pulitzer.org; Accessed October 23, 2010
  13. ^ "The Folding Cliffs: A Narrative (Hardcover)"; Amazon.com; October 23, 2010
  14. ^ Farr, Sheila, "Poet ponders life's contrasts in 'The Shadow of Sirius'", book review, October 30, 2010, The Seattle Times, retrieved June 8, 2010
  15. ^ Archive at Hudson Review Accessed October 23, 2010
  16. ^ "Finding Aid for the W.S. Merwin Papers, Merwin 1". Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://hdl.handle.net/10111/UIU00002. Retrieved March 29, 2010. 
  17. ^ "Finding Aid for the W.S. Merwin Book Collection (UIU00141)". Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://hdl.handle.net/10111/UIU00141. Retrieved March 29, 2010. 

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