Word: merwin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Aleixandre is relatively unknown outside of the Spanish-speaking world, although he has been translated by English poets W.S. Merwin and Robert...
...MERWIN...
This book should win W.S. Merwin, 49, some new fans, especially on college campuses, where he is already a big draw. It may also trouble some older admirers. Ever since his Asian Figures (1973), a collection of sayings from the Korean, Philippine, Chinese and Japanese, Merwin's imagination has been racing eastward. The effect on his poetry is often a studied inscrutability-purposeful but somehow aimless journeys through a landscape of clouds and mountains. Some of his poems seem like private mantras: "Dark rain at/ winter solstice/ and in the morning/ rosemary under clear sky/ bird on south doorstep...
...When Merwin descends to rub his language against the here and now, sparks can fly, as in a poem called "Fishing...
...bulk of The Compass Flower seems too serene to rid itself of fatigued images ("autumn leaves," "salt of the earth") or to prove that its serenity has been earned by struggle. Many Western ears will find it hard to tell whether Merwin is being vatic or phatic...