News > April 17, 2008

By Haowei Tong | Staff writer

W. S. Merwin, one of the most influential poets of the 20th century, will be reading from his work at 7 p.m. April 22 in Babcock Auditorium at Reynolda House. Merwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist who has published more than twenty poetry collections.

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Poet W.S. Merwin will visit Reynolda House at 7p.m. on April 22 to read selections of his works. (Photo courtesy of the News Service)

He is also an avid environmentalist and peace activist, initially achieving fame as an anti-war poet in the 1960s.

Currently Merwin resides in Hawaii and is dedicated to rainforest restoration.

Merwin has served as the playwright-in-residence at the Poet’s Theater in Cambridge, Mass., and the poetry editor at The Nation, and he is a well-respected translator.

Merwin’s literary prizes include the Yale Younger Poets Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award.

Merwin began composing hymns at a remarkably young age for his father, a Presbyterian minister.

“I started writing hymns for my father as soon as I could write at all,” Merwin said.

Additionally, Merwin conveyed a deep interest in Native American culture as a child.

“I learned to read because of wanting to learn about Indians, because of the way they lived,” he said.

Merwin’s early poetry generally featured mythological themes. Robert Graves’ heavy influence is reflected in these works.

He moved to London in 1951 and worked as a translator for several years after studying romance languages at Princeton University.

Following his graduation from Princeton, Merwin has not since been formally associated with any writing program or university.

In America, Merwin’s first book of poems was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1952.

Later the two clashed regarding Merwin’s outspoken political involvement.

Merwin wrote an article, “On being awarded the Pulitzer Prize,” for the June 3, 1971 issue of The New York Review of Books. In it he declared his objection to the Vietnam War and his rejection of the prize money.

Auden retorted that the Pulitzer Prize jury had no ties to American foreign policy and expressed disdain for Merwin’s ostentatious gesture. His letter, published in the July 1, 1971 issue, was titled “Saying No.”

Merwin’s anti-war poetry burgeoned in the 1960s.

At this time he also began to experiment with metrical irregularity, indirect narration and an absence of punctuation.

In 1969, Merwin published an explanatory essay titled “On Open Form.” His later volumes are significantly less controlled and deliberately untidy. Of these, The Lice and The Carrier of Ladders, published in 1967 and 1970 respectively, remain his most influential works.

Included in these collections are highly personal and progressively autobiographical themes.

In 1998, Merwin published a bold novel-in-verse titled Folding Cliffs: A Narrative.

The book focuses on Hawaiian history and legend. In his latest works, Merwin revolutionizes his earlier themes with meditative tones. They are satiated with environmental tributes.

“When we destroy the forests, we are destroying ourselves, and this is something that we don’t see,” he said.

“If we don’t see it, we will be destroyed.”

“Writing and life as a whole, not just the human species — it’s all joined. We’re not separate from it at all. This is a very dangerous assumption to make. It’s leading us into a very dangerous world, where our chances for survival are decreasing all the time, though our own doings,” he said in a separate interview.Merwin is a pioneer in the realm of literary environmental activism, and his views on poetry are similarly gallant.

“I grew up, (as) almost everybody of my generation did, thinking that people cared about the art or they cared about the natural world — but never both of them,” he said. “The pleasure (in poetry) will carry you through until you understand it. It won’t work the other way around.”

“It is a tremendous coup for the department of English to have Merwin as part of our writers’ reading series,” said Conor O’Callaghan, professor and living poet-in-residence.

He encourages all students to acquire free tickets to the event as soon as possible.