W. S. Merwin was appointed United States Poet Laureate by the Librarian of Congress in July 2010. He lives, writes, and gardens in Hawaii, on the island of Maui. He has spent the last thirty years planting nineteen acres with over eight hundred species of palm, creating a sustainable forest. The property has recently been turned into a conservancy, the Merwin Conservancy.
Poetry
Fall 2010
By the Front Door
Rain through the morning and in the long pool an old toad singing happiness old as water
Nonfiction
Fall 2010
The House and Garden: The Emergence of a Dream
Editor’s note: This essay is a portion of a summary written for the formation of a Conservancy on the north coast of the island of Maui in 2010. It is […]
Poetry
Fall 2010
Homecoming
Once only when the summer was nearly over and my own hair had been white as the days clouds for more years than I was counting I stood by the […]
Poetry
Fall 2010
From the Gray Legends
Arachne wove the gray before daylight from beyond the screen of fronds before the birds before words before the first stories before voices before Minerva’s eyes were made of that […]
Poetry
Fall 2010
Before Midsummer above the River Again
Unseen words thoughts of words circle the empty room where I was young stars in daytime that old not a sound from them not one question they know me in […]
Poetry
Winter 2002
Before Morning
A name in the dark a tissue of echoes a breath repeated on the arch of my foot the mute messenger last one to have heard the music I remember […]
Poetry
Winter 2002
Under the Day
To come back like autumn to the moss on the stones after many seasons to recur as a face backlit on the surface of a dark pool one day after […]
Poetry
Winter 2000
South of Names
When the wind comes out of that direction whatever it touches is stricken by a loss long forgotten but instantly recognized although it has no face now but then it […]
Poetry
Winter 2000
Overtone
Some listening were certain they could hear through the notes summoned from the strings one more following at a distance low but clear a resonance never part of the score […]
Poetry
Winter 2000
Transit
Then the moment is there when a person who might be anyone looks up and sees in the mirror that the whole road is gone where that person was on […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Summer/ Autumn 1997
Coal Barges
From THE KENYON REVIEW, SPRING 1957 Not to heaven go these, strung together, The color of coffins, staid as hearses, beating Their wake across the coils of the black river, […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Summer/ Autumn 1997
Canso
From THE KENYON REVIEW, AUTUMN 1953 I believe at dark solstice in the white moon sailing new, And in my love, and in her hand, though the green shoot withered, […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Summer/ Autumn 1997
Ballad of John Cable and Three Gentlemen
from THE KENYON REVIEW, AUTUMN 1951 He that had come that morning, One after the other, Over seven hills, Each of a new color, Came now by the last tree, […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Summer/ Autumn 1997
The Nine Days of Creation
from THE KENYON REVIEW, SUMMER 1956 The first day of Creation All things, love, alone were, Darkness the lonely creature; Clove us then Love with good light For two can […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Summer/ Autumn 1997
The Miner
From THE KENYON REVIEW Summer 1957 With a mountain on top of him from The first day, he learns not to think Impractically about the place His life depends on. […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Summer/ Autumn 1997
A Wit in Age
From THE KENYON REVIEW, SPRING 1957 Who could conjure up the ridiculous Out of all the world's postures, and wring Laughter from the straightest faces, Perceives still with unfailing Sharpness […]
Poetry
Spring 1957
Coal Barges
Not to heaven go these, strung together, The color of coffins, staid as hearses, beating Their wake across the coils of the black river, Bones in their mossy teeth, and […]
Poetry
Spring 1957
The Miner
With a mountain on top of him from The first day, he learns not to think Impractically about the place His life depends on. Three hundred feet Down in the […]
Poetry
Spring 1957
A Wit in Age
Who could conjure up the ridiculous Out of all the world’s postures, and wring Laughter from the straightest faces, Perceives still with unfailing Sharpness the absurdity of it all. Only […]
Poetry
Summer 1956
The Nine Days of Creation
The first day of CreationAll things, love, alone were,Darkness the lonely creature;Clove us then Love with good lightFor two can be together,And partly we were bright,Each other so to look […]
Book Reviews
Summer 1954
The Translation of Verse
The Song Of Roland translated by Fredrick Bliss Luquiens. Macmillan. $2.75 The Lusiads Of Camoens translated by Leonard Bacon. Hispanic Society of America. $4.50. The Lusiads Of Camoens translated by […]
Poetry
Autumn 1953
Canso
I believe at dark solstice in the white moon sailing new, And in my love, and in her hand, though the green shoot withered, And in the twice-joining sea between […]
Book Reviews
Summer 1953
Four British Poets
Europa And The Bull by W. S. Rodgers. London, Secker and Warburg. I0/6. (In America, Farrar, Straus, and Young. $3.00.) The Year One by Kathleen Raine. Hamish Hamilton, London. 7/6. […]
Poetry
Summer 1952
The Lady with the Heron
I walk athirst In a month of rain; Drought I learned At the feet of a heron. Green trees, full rivers; Athirst I went, With a shrieking bird In the […]
Poetry
Autumn 1951
Ballad of John Cable and Three Gentlemen
He that had come that morning, One after the other, Over seven hills, Each of a new color, Came now by the last tree, By the red-colored valley, To a […]
Poetry
Spring 1999
Purgatory X
From the Italian When we were in over the sill of the gate which is neglected by the soul’s wrong love making the crooked way seem to be straight the […]
Poetry
Spring 1999
Vers
From the Provençal Then when the days are long in May the songs are sweet of birds from far away and when from listening I turn away I remember a […]
Canso
From The Kenyon Review, Autumn 1953, Vol. 15, No. 4 I believe at dark solstice in the white moon sailing new, And in my love, and in her hand, though […]