Post by hadobos38 on May 21, 2012 19:49:41 GMT -5
Mark Strand was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada in 1934. At the age of four his family moved to the United States where he lived in large cities such as New York City, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. His teenage years were mostly spent in South and Central America due to his father’s business in sales. The constant movement of his location in his early life inspired the wide variety of his poetic voice; ranging from the “bookish dark” to his “happiness” of reading poetry. Strand’s first book, Sleeping with One Eye Open was published in 1964 and immediately sparked attention amongst the critics.
Although he had dove into poetry during his early 20’s, Strand had originally aspired to be an artist. In 1959 he received a B.F.A from Yale University. However, by the time he was twenty his love for painting fizzled. Following his graduation from Yale, he studied 19th century, Italian poetry abroad on a Fulbright Scholarship. His realization of wanting to be a poet influenced his third book of poetry, an oblique autobiographical volume of poetry, Darker (1970), to be focused on the “new man” of the alter ego, and “what is left of [our] life” as we discover who we are.
Along with Darker, many of Strand’s early collections of poetry, such as Reasons for Moving (1968), established his reputation as a dark and foreboding poet. However, in an interview for the Los Angles Times, Strand stated that he did not find his poems “especially dark,” but he found them “more evenly lit.” Although many of his poems write of the “indelible dark,” many of them contrast to present an idea of “the grace of light.” Strand’s viewpoint has been inspired by the different cultures of the countries he has spent a part of his life in.
When writing his poetry, the dark and the light, he evokes a vivid picture of the poem in his audience’s mind by exploring a realistic topic with a surrealistic voice. His style has been compared to that of Robert Bly, however he attributes his surreal language to his admiration for the works of Max Ernst and Rene Magritte.
His poems often fall under the conditions of dreams, written with such surrealism that the images he creates possess a haunting vividness in the reader’s mind. In ‘The Dreadful Has Already Happened’ he explores the horrific process from childhood to adulthood of the speaker who must “break his legs.../ reached inside for his tiny lungs and shook them.” Strand expresses everyday images and occurrences, such as “pens fall from [men’s] pockets” to connect with a broader audience. The pens falling is a metaphor for people losing themselves at the cost of others; the baby being murdered speak to those who have to, or have previously, had to grow up. His poetry teaches the readers about the important aspects of everyday life that we as humans have to face, while using a surrealistic voice to capture the reader’s attention and stimulate their creative minds.
He has won numerous awards for his work that include: the Bollingen Prize, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the 1974 Edgar Allen Poe Prize from The Academy of American Poets, the Pulitzer Prize, and a Rockefeller Foundation Award. Strand has been a professor at over 12 universities, and in 2006 retired from teaching literature and creative writing at Columbia University.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to welcome to the stage, Mr. Mark Strand.
word count: 590
Although he had dove into poetry during his early 20’s, Strand had originally aspired to be an artist. In 1959 he received a B.F.A from Yale University. However, by the time he was twenty his love for painting fizzled. Following his graduation from Yale, he studied 19th century, Italian poetry abroad on a Fulbright Scholarship. His realization of wanting to be a poet influenced his third book of poetry, an oblique autobiographical volume of poetry, Darker (1970), to be focused on the “new man” of the alter ego, and “what is left of [our] life” as we discover who we are.
Along with Darker, many of Strand’s early collections of poetry, such as Reasons for Moving (1968), established his reputation as a dark and foreboding poet. However, in an interview for the Los Angles Times, Strand stated that he did not find his poems “especially dark,” but he found them “more evenly lit.” Although many of his poems write of the “indelible dark,” many of them contrast to present an idea of “the grace of light.” Strand’s viewpoint has been inspired by the different cultures of the countries he has spent a part of his life in.
When writing his poetry, the dark and the light, he evokes a vivid picture of the poem in his audience’s mind by exploring a realistic topic with a surrealistic voice. His style has been compared to that of Robert Bly, however he attributes his surreal language to his admiration for the works of Max Ernst and Rene Magritte.
His poems often fall under the conditions of dreams, written with such surrealism that the images he creates possess a haunting vividness in the reader’s mind. In ‘The Dreadful Has Already Happened’ he explores the horrific process from childhood to adulthood of the speaker who must “break his legs.../ reached inside for his tiny lungs and shook them.” Strand expresses everyday images and occurrences, such as “pens fall from [men’s] pockets” to connect with a broader audience. The pens falling is a metaphor for people losing themselves at the cost of others; the baby being murdered speak to those who have to, or have previously, had to grow up. His poetry teaches the readers about the important aspects of everyday life that we as humans have to face, while using a surrealistic voice to capture the reader’s attention and stimulate their creative minds.
He has won numerous awards for his work that include: the Bollingen Prize, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the 1974 Edgar Allen Poe Prize from The Academy of American Poets, the Pulitzer Prize, and a Rockefeller Foundation Award. Strand has been a professor at over 12 universities, and in 2006 retired from teaching literature and creative writing at Columbia University.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to welcome to the stage, Mr. Mark Strand.
word count: 590