Travels: Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

by W.S. Merwin

A Pulitzer Prize-winning author and “one of the greatest poets of our age … the Thoreau of our era” (Edward Hirsch) delivers “one of the most beautiful and moving collections of poetry of his career … a book of deep historical resonance and luminous poetic grace” ( Los Angeles Times Book Review ).  

“With each new book we have been reminded why, for forty years, he has remained a pivotal figure in the literary life of this country … [he] continues to earn his place as one of our most influential and compelling contemporary poets.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

William Stanley Merwin was an American poet, credited with over fifty books of poetry, translation and prose.

William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematically characterized by indirect, unpunctuated narration. In the 1980s and 1990s, his writing influence derived from an interest in Buddhist philosophy and deep ecology. Residing in a rural part of Maui, Hawaii, he wrote prolifically and was dedicated to the restoration of the island's rainforests.

Merwin received many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1971 and 2009; the National Book Award for Poetry in 2005, and the Tanning Prize—one of the highest honors bestowed by the Academy of American Poets—as well as the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings. In 2010, the Library of Congress named him the 17th United States Poet Laureate.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection inadvertently recommend from a friend in my D&D group. Some of these poems were really lovely, but I struggled with Merwin's lack of punctuation. It took me a lot longer to read through these poems, but maybe that's for the best.

Some of my favorites were "Fulfilment", "The Day Itself", "Lunar Landscape", and "On the Back of the Boarding Pass".

[Keith Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly not my favorite Merwin, but it is one of his most interesting books for those interested in seeing how he kept pushing himself to develop his craft.

First most of this book is comprised of long narratives about interesting characters, people who would have shared the interests that came to dominate the last 25 years of Merwin's life (and it is worth remembering that he was already an accomplished poet in his 60s when he began devoting himself to the work in the natural world for which he is remembered now). And I don't know of any other book where he does that kind of biographical exploration in verse.

Also he had made the move to eliminating punctuation 25 years before this, and had written some masterful poems where line, stanza and sense give you everything you need. Still, it wasn't enough. Many of the poems in this book are in strict syllabics, often arbitrary and complicated syllabic structures much like Marianne Moore's. I get the sense that he was looking for some new way to control his impulses. Yet the syllabics will inevitably throw the poet into some very strange, often fruitful enjambments, as they do with Merwin. But a different poet would use punctuation to keep the syntax under control. Merwin can't do that because he has decided not to use punctuation. So the poems in this book use more conjunctions than I remember seeing in any other Merwin poems, usually simply "and." This gives the poems a hurried, breathy feel, perhaps appropriate for telling a long story about someone else's life, but very different from the feel I remember in the books that came after this one.

I have never looked at the later work with the sense of syllabic formalism in mind, and I will have to, but I have never felt this hurriedness in Merwin poems before.

[Everett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite Merwin by a long shot. The poems in Travels are long, complicated, and inaccessible. Nothing like the most recent collections, Garden Time, and The Moon Before Morning, which are just phenomenal. These latter collections showcase Merwins unpunctuated profundity in simple, accessible style. „Travels“ shows a poet in flux, before graduating from erudite scholar, before awakening to the power and wisdom of simplicity.

[Sacha]

"I always knew that I came from another language" and I was hooked. There were several poems that spoke to me, but only several. None so very piercing as 'separation'. Eventually ran out of time from the library.

[Johnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+

Some amazing poems in here.

[Kylie Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of Merwin's collections, but there are definitely some gems in here

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is only my second Merwin book, and, whereas The Vixen didn't really seem to suit the unpunctuated form he uses, I think this book succeeds, over all 137 pages of its poems, to keep up the energy, so that the poems aren't merely settling into a conventional syntax, indistinguishable from normally punctuated sentences. All I'm saying here is that there is a reason why the poems aren't punctuated. And part of the reason, I think, is Merwin's investigation of identity and voice. Is it even possible to have an identity? It's a reasonable question, even if reasoning about it might lead to thinking in circles. Or maybe thinking into no shape at all.

[Greta]

His poetry is pleasant to hear out loud.

[Rauan · Rating 3 out of 5]

--yawn--

[t]

The first Merwin I've had to give up on. Pretty bland, which is something I've never thought about whole swaths of poems from him. I guess it was bound to happen one of these days.