The Essential W.S. Merwin

The Essential W.S. Merwinbeautifully demonstrates why Merwin has been one of Americas most decorated and important poets for more than 60 years.The Washington PostMerwin is one of the great poets of our age.Los Angeles Times Book ReviewMerwin has become instantly recognizable on the page; he has made for himself that most difficult of all creations an accomplished style.Helen Vendler New York Review of BooksIt is gratifying to read poetry that is this ambitious that cares about vision and the possibilities of poetry by a poet who is capable of so much change.The NationThe Essential W.S. Merwin traces a poetic legacy that has changed the landscape of American letters: seven decades of audacity rigor and candor distilled into one definite volume curated to represent the very best works from a vast oeuvre from his 1952 debut A Mask for Janus to 2016s Garden Time. The Essential W.S. Merwin includes favorite poems from two Pulitzer Prize-winning volumes; a selection of iconic translations; and lesser-known prose narratives. As the formalism of Merwins early work loosens into the open unpunctuated style he developed later in his careerwhen urgent times demanded innovative modes of expressionreaders can trace the evolution of one voices commitment to moral spiritual and aesthetic inquiry. Across the decades beyond headlines policies and trends W.S. Merwins poems point to the lessons that hide in the shadows of sentience. Poetry is a way of looking at the world for the first time.W.S. MerwinNoahs RavenWhy should I have returned?My knowledge would not fit into theirs.I found untouched the desert of the unknownBig enough for my feet. It is my home.It is always beyond them. The futureSplits the present with the echo of my voice.Hoarse with fulfillment. I never made promises.Since launching his career by winning the Yale Younger Poets Award 1952 W. S. Merwin has authored dozens of books of poetry prose and translation. A beloved voice in American literature Merwin is a former U.S. Poet Laureate and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Hawaii within the palm forest where he wrote On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree.