The Birdcage Archives

Monday 18 March 2019

W.S. Merwin, Dies Aged 91


Hello Gentle Reader

Of the twentieth century American poets, there are few giants and greats. Among their number include the indisputable and transatlantic poets: T.S. Eliot (Nobel Laureate) and W.H. Auden; as well as the great African American poet and memoirist, Maya Angelou; the complicated, the beatnik and bohemian poet of an America liberated, Allen Ginsberg; the divisive, confessional and tragic Sylia Plath; the poet who dances with fire, Sharon Olds; the complex and academic postmodernist Susan Howe; the naturalist and curious commentator of animal life, Mary Oliver; and the divisively uncertain postmodern surrealist John Ashbery, who remains controversial even after his last breath drawn, perplexing and infuriating critics. Among this pantheon of great poets of American literature of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century is: W.S. Merwin, who died March 15th 2019, at the age of 91 in his home in Hawaii.

Since his youth, W.S. Merwin was in possession of two inclinations and interests, which came forth through his talents of language. The first was his enamored admiration for the natural world, where as a child Merwin had been noted taking a keen interest in the natural world, going as far as having conversations with old trees in his family’s backyard. The second was a fascination with links and monuments to the past. Those ever unflinching and fanatical staunch signs of solidarity, who resist the corrosion of time and history, to remain resilient and resisting to the sweet coercion and passing’s, while solidifying with stone like memory of notice and mark to what had existed. In his youth, Merwin showed an innate feeling and talent for language, whereby he composed and wrote hymns for his father, a Presbyterian minister. These talents of his youth and his noted interest in the fragile and withstanding natural world would later shape the poet and writer he would become.

Along with John Ashbery, W.S. Merwin is often credited as being one of the most distinct and defining voices of American poetry and literature in the twentieth century. His poems from the Vietnam War Era and generation gained immediate recognition alongside Adrienne Rich and Allen Ginsberg. Yet, his poetry was all his own, and was renowned for its plain spoken form which was sprinkled with grace and mysticism which came from his interest in Buddhism. His poetry could move between cautious optimism to elegiac forewarning, as he praised the natural world begging in silence to be saved, and yet stationary as it’s ripped up, burned down, chopped up and done away with. Merwin spent a career forcing his readers to find introspection and then understand the world was falling apart around them, but not by some celestial or external chaotic force, but by their own two hands or their own two feet. Despite his environmental insight (or perhaps for it) W.S. Merwin won the Pultizer Prize twice as well as the National Book Award for Poetry, and was named the Poet Laureate of the United States, from two-thousand and ten until two-thousand and eleven.

Throughout his career, W.S. Merwin was a striking and powerful voice for conservation, environmental sustainability, political pacifism and deep introspective philosophical ponderings. His mark on poetry and American Poetry cannot be overlooked or swept aside. His passing though will leave a massive void, which can only be filled by his long lasting and enduring poetic compositions and volumes of writing.

Rest in Peace, W.S Merwin

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read

M. Mary
                                                    

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