Search the Fresh Air Archive

Close Search

Poet and Translator W.S. Merwin

Merwin won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1970 work, The Carriers of Ladders. His books include The Song of Roland, The Compass Flower, Miner's Pale Children, Houses and Travellers, and The Rain in the Trees. Many of his poems concern the beauty of the natural world and the consequences of man's desecration of it. (Rebroadcast)

12:42
Queue

Guest

Host

Related Topics

Other segments from the episode on May 19, 1995

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, May 19, 1995: Interview with Robert Haas; Interview with Sharon Olds; Interview with W.S. Merwin; Commentary on an aging mother.
Queue
09:19

New Poet Laureate Robert Haas

This year, The U.S. Library Congress named Hass has the American Poet Laureate. Two collections of his work were published last year, Selected Poems 1954-1986, and Provinces 1987-1991. He translated, with poet Robert Pinsky, Czeslaw Milosz's The Separate Notebooks. We replay part of Terry's conversation with him from 1989 (Rebroadcast).

Interview
Queue
11:54

Poet Sharon Olds on Her Intense an Personal Work

Olds writes passionately about her childhood with abusive and alcoholic parents, and her own experiences as a mother and a wife. Suicide attempts in New York, and encounters on the subway also provide inspiration for her work. Sharon Olds is the recipient of the 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award for her collection titled The Dead and the Living. (Rebroadcast)

Interview

Transcript

Transcript currently not available.

Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.

You May Also like

Queue
44:14

Poet Natasha Trethewey, Hymning the Native Guard

Natasha Trethewey was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Native Guard, her most recent collection of poetry. The title refers to a regiment of African- American soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War.

Trethewey grew up the child of a racially mixed marriage in Mississippi. Her mother was murdered by her stepfather; these, along with the South and its singular ways, are recurring themes in her poetry.

Trethewey teaches creative writing at Emory University. Native Guard is her third collection.

Interview

Did you know you can create a shareable playlist?

Learn How
Advertisement

Recently on Fresh Air Available to Play on NPR

52:30

Daughter of Warhol star looks back on a bohemian childhood in the Chelsea Hotel

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

Queue

Related segments from the Fresh Air Archive:

43:04

This fake 'Jury Duty' really put James Marsden's improv chops on trial

In the series Jury Duty, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden has agreed to participate in what he believes is a documentary about the experience of being a juror--but what Ronald doesn't know is that the whole thing is fake.

Queue

Related segments from the Fresh Air Archive:

See All Recent Segments

There are more than 22,000 Fresh Air segments.

Let us help you find exactly what you want to hear.
Just play me something
Your Queue

Would you like to make a playlist based on your queue?

Generate & Share View/Edit Your Queue