Travels

by MERWIN, W. S.

• ISBN13: 9780679752776
• ISBN10: 0679752773
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-06-21
• Publisher: Knopf
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Merwin is a major figure in our poetry, one of the few. His first book of verse in five years is an event. It is a very full selection with many sides: brief lyrics and long narratives, all of them marked by a moving and profound sense of the natural world and the presence in it of living creatures. Merwin's language is entirely his own, and his control of it and of the construction of his poems makes for breathtaking work of enduring quality. The narratives are a departure for this poet, dealing as they do with historical figures: "Rimbaud's Piano" is an extended meditation on the poet; others deal with naturalists such as William Bartram, Georg Eberhard Rumpf ("The Blind Seer of Ambon"), and David Douglas; and in "The Real World of Manuel Cordova" he tells a story almost as enthralling as Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Author Biography

W. S. Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and grew up in Union City, New Jersey, and in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From 1949 to 1951 he worked as a tutor in France, Portugal, and Majorca. He has since lived in many parts of the world, most recently on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, where he cultivates rare palm trees. His many works of poems, prose, and translation are listed at the beginning of this volume. He has been awarded a fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (of which he is now a chancellor), the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and the Bollingen Prize in Poetry. Most recently, he has received the Governor’s Award for Literature of the state of Hawaii, the Tanning Prize for mastery in the art of poetry, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

Table of Contents

Cover Note
The Blind Seer of Ambon	p. 3
Manini	p. 5
Writing Lives	p. 9
The Hill of Evening	p. 11
Barn	p. 15
Rimbaud's Piano	p. 17
Among Bells	p. 22
Search Party	p. 25
Missing	p. 26
Paul	p. 28
Kites	p. 30
A Distance	p. 32
The Morning Train	p. 33
Fulfilment	p. 35
The Lost Camelia of the Bartrams	p. 38
After Douglas	p. 41
Cinchona	p. 44
Inheritance	p. 50
The Day Itself	p. 54
Lives of the Artists	p. 59
Panes	p. 68
The Wars in New Jersey	p. 71
A Short Nap on the Way	p. 73
The Moment of Green	p. 76
The River	p. 83
So Far	p. 85
The Palms	p. 87
Immortelles	p. 89
Field Mushrooms	p. 91
Lunar Landscape	p. 92
Looking Up	p. 93
For the Year	p. 94
The Real World of Manuel Cordova	p. 96
Another Place	p. 115
One Story	p. 126
Rain Travel	p. 128
On the Back of the Boarding Pass	p. 129
Last Morning at Punta Arena	p. 130
Mirage	p. 131
On the Old Way	p. 132
Left Open	p. 133
Stone Village	p. 134
Turning	p. 135
A Summer Night	p. 136
After the Spring	p. 137
Notes	p. 139
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