Background
Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 9, 1921.
(This generous selection of Mona Van Duyns distinguished,...)
This generous selection of Mona Van Duyns distinguished, award-winning work spans four decades. Beginning with her classic Valentines to the Wide World (1959), encompassing the intimate voice of Bedtime Stories (1972) and the moving Letters from a Father (1982), crowned by the life-spanning Firefall (1993), Selected Poems reacquaints us with a poet whose ear is keenly tuned to the music of nature and human conversation. In lively and varied forms, from her minimalist sonnets to her magisterial longer pieces, Van Duyn captures a multiplicity of worlds within her world, in a tone inflected by both Midwestern pragmatism and a deep metaphysical intelligence. As she contemplates the act of reading in bed, a Rhenish sculpture in the Cloisters, or the loss of her mother, the poet goes beyond context to discover consciousness: an expression of the larger ideas and emotionsfinally, the artin the smallest details of our lives. From the Hardcover edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375709800/?tag=2022091-20
(The twenty-five poems included in this collection present...)
The twenty-five poems included in this collection present a poet mature in both craft and perception and possessed of a fine capacity for being both lyric and analytic at the same time. There is no posturing, but always a position, both thought and felt. Originally published in 1964. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807809829/?tag=2022091-20
(Mana Van Duyn's most recent collection is splendidly vari...)
Mana Van Duyn's most recent collection is splendidly varied: witty, moving, sometimes astonishing. As Howard Nemerov said of her last book, "It is not only that the best of her poems teaches us so much about life, but that life, over a long time, teaches us the truth about these poems." From the brief poems she calls "minimalist sonnets" to the powerful long poems "Falls" and "Delivery," both recalling incidents from childhood and youth, the work in this extraordinary book is that of a poet reaching the depths and heights of her own talent. A companion to this one, If It Be Not I: Collected Poems 1959-1982, restores to print in one substantial book all of her work from Merciful Disguises and Letters from a Father. From the Trade Paperback edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679418970/?tag=2022091-20
(These two books, published simultaneously, contain all th...)
These two books, published simultaneously, contain all the poetry of Mona Van Duyn, except for her Pulitzer Prize-winning Near Changes, available as a separate volume. Firefall contains the most recent work of the 1992-3 Poet Laureate of the United States. From the Trade Paperback edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679419020/?tag=2022091-20
Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 9, 1921.
She earned a B. S. degree from the University of Northern Iowa and an M. A. from the University of Iowa, where she took courses and taught in its famous Writers' Workshop in the 1940s. She had honorary doctorates of letters from Washington University, St. Louis, and Cornell College, Mount Vernon (Iowa).
Van Duyn taught literature and creative writing extensively. From 1950 to 1967 she was lecturer in English at University College, Washington University. She also taught at the University of Louisville. She lectured at the Salzburg (Austria) Seminar in American Studies and at the Sewanee Writers and the Breadloaf Writing Conferences.
Van Duyn's books include Valentines to the Wide World (1959), A Time of Bees (1964), To See, To Take (1970), Bedtime Stories (1972), Merciful Disguises (1973), Letters from a Father and Other Poems (1983), and Near Changes (1990), Firefall: Poems (1993) and If It Be Not I: Collected Poems, 1959-1982 (1993).
Firefall, her tenth collection of poems, deals with her familiar themes of love, death, marriage, birth, "the flowering self, " and art. More than half of the poems are in a short-lined sonnet form that Van Duyn describes as a "minimalist sonnet. " Critic Ben Howard wrote of Firefall that "Apart from its minimalist experiments the present collection breaks no new ground, but like the poet's earlier work it bespeaks a humane, forgiving spirit, rich in warmth and moral wisdom. "
(The twenty-five poems included in this collection present...)
(These two books, published simultaneously, contain all th...)
(Mana Van Duyn's most recent collection is splendidly vari...)
(This generous selection of Mona Van Duyns distinguished,...)
(Selections from the American poet's works reveal her crea...)
(Mona Van Duyn's Near Changes is a valuable addition to co...)
In 1983 the National Institute of Arts and Letters elected her a member.
Quotes from others about the person
Of her poetry, Joseph Parisi, editor of Poetry Magazine, said in his citation for the Lilly Prize: "From the publication of her first book, her mastery of the art was immediately apparent—her subtle intelligence and formidable technical skill, her gift of humor and satire, her formal elegance, and especially her understanding of the vagaries and vulnerabilities of the human heart. "
"How refreshing to turn and return to the authentic lines of this poet when she speaks of love. Here we encounter a brilliant mind penetrating ever deeper beneath the surface to the core of feeling. Here we discover striking figures and uncanny metaphors which spark sudden recognition of our complex relations, with their shifting tensions, fears, and ambiguities. And here we delight in an artful music which echoes and sometimes ameliorates the conflicts of our most intimate desires. "
Other critics were also complimentary. Kenneth Rexroth remarked of her Valentines to the Wide World that it was "… full of verbal and metaphysical wit, a wiry distortion of ordinary speech that communicates deeply felt and strongly evaluated experience. " Carolyn Kizer called "Toward a Definition of Marriage, " which appears in Valentines, "… one of the finest long poems written by an American. "
The British writer and critic Frank Kermode declared that she was "to me, a great belated discovery. " J. D. McClatchy, critic and editor, wrote of her work: "Love is her subject, not the lyricist's love, but what she calls 'knowledge of love' or 'married love'—married, that is, as much to others and to the 'motley and manifold' as to the fitful, isolated self. Love as a paradigm of all human relationships. "