In the Summer of 1947, James Merrill had just graduated from Amherst College, but he had already published his first book of poems, The Black Swan, which won the prestigious Glascock Prize for Poetry awarded by Mount Holyoke College. In April, he published four poems in Poetry Magazine, followed quickly by this first appearance in KR.
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1998
The Drowning Poet
The drowning poet hours before he drownedHad whirlpool eyes, salt at his wrists, and woreA watery emphasis. The sea was awareAs flowers at the bedside of a woundOf an imminent […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1998
Entrance from Sleep
From the Summer 1947 Issue. To wake into the afternoon for youIs a familiar gesture. Upon the eye,As dawn to the shade-embroidered fountain bringsThe young fern’s wisdom, the first world […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1998
Cloud Country
From the Summer 1947 Issue. How like a marriage is the season of clouds.The winds at night are festive and constellationsLike stars in a kaleidoscope dissolveAnd meet in astounding […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1998
Dancing, Joyously Dancing
From the Summer 1947 Issue. And all throughout a Breughel matineeThose buxom waltzes rang. Good people, criedThe fiddler, dance! Fiddler, the dancers cried,Addressing perhaps the sun, teach us this joyThat […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1998
Transfigured Bird
1 . That day the eggshell of appearance split And weak of its own translucence lay in the dew. A child fond of natural things discovered it. Though it was […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1998
Dream and Waking
From the Summer1958 Issue. Softening the marbles, dayIs dawning, which two elms vein.Presently, slow as crochet,White veils grow across the scene.Now that my life has lost its wayI watch for […]
Contemporary American Poetry
Summer 1982
Caesarion
A glow of cells in the warm Sea, Some vaguest green or violet soup Took a few billion days to loop The loops we called eternity. Before the splendor bit […]
Poetry
Summer 1979
Scripts for the Pageant: The First Five Lessons
Anyone who chooses may make his own Ouija board. Draw on a large smooth surface an arc of capital letters A to Z; below these, the ten Arabic numerals; above, […]
Poetry
Summer 1958
Dream and Waking
Softening the marbles, day Is dawning, which two elms vein. Presently, slow as crochet, White veils grow across the scene. Now that my life has lost its way I watch […]
Poetry
Winter 1949
Transfigured Bird
1. That day the eggshell of appearance split And weak of its own translucence lay in the dew.A child fond of natural things discovered it. Though it was broken it […]
Poetry
Summer 1947
Cloud Country
From the Summer 1947 Issue. How like a marriage is the season of clouds.The winds at night are festive and constellationsLike stars in a kaleidoscope dissolveAnd meet in astounding images […]
Poetry
Summer 1947
Entrance from Sleep
To wake into the afternoon for youIs a familiar gesture. Upon the eye,As dawn to the shade-embroidered fountain bringsThe young fern’s wisdom, the first world takes shapeWhere shadow and light […]
Poetry
Summer 1947
The Drowning Poet
The drowning poet hours before he drownedHad whirlpool eyes, salt at his wrists, and woreA watery emphasis. The sea was awareAs flowers at the bedside of a woundOf an imminent […]
Poetry
Summer 1947
Dancing, Joyously Dancing
And all throughout a Breughel matineeThose buxom waltzes rang. Good people, criedThe fiddler, dance! Fiddler, the dancers cried,Addressing perhaps the sun, teach us this joyThat is no more than dancing […]
Fall 2012
Cloud Country
How like a marriage is the season of clouds.
The winds at night are festive and constellations
Like stars in a kaleidoscope dissolve
And meet in astounding images of order.