Mark Strand: Poet Captures Universal Emotions Rarely Expressed

This is the fourth article of the Poet Laureates of the United States series. Clearly, this fourth Poet Laureate blazed trail after trail of literary style. For the year 1990 –1991, Mark Strand heralded the title of Poet Laureate of The United States.

The focus of his poetry is to communicate the universal experiences and emotions of people that can only be captured in the strange, dreamlike structure. This structure is one of Strand’s literary characteristics. Through this device, the poet often presents in his poems speakers who suffer from a psychic split, which Strand considers a process of self-alienation.

The poet was born on Prince Edward Island in 1934. He earned his B.A. from Antioch College and later earned a B.F.A. from Yale. He studied under Donald Justice at the University of Iowa and spent one year in Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1962, he earned his Masters degree and remained at Iowa University as an instructor for three years. He went to Rio De Janiero in 1965 as a Fulbright Lecturer.

Since then, the poet has taught as various American universities. As well as writing his own work, he edited a variety of anthologies of European, Mexican, and South American writers.

In April, 1999, the Pulitzer Prize award for poetry went to Mark Strand for his book "Blizzard of One." It's Strand's ninth book of poetry. He is also the author of several books of translations, edited poetry anthologies, and written books for children. The poet most recently teaches at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

More about Mark Strand can be discovered at:
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prm...

The following is an excerpt from an early poem entitled

“Eating Poetry”.

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
. . .
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

From: http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prm...

Those who are writers can truly identify with the narrator’s expression of the joy of consuming poetry, which is expressed in the first three lines of Strand’s poem. Of course the metaphor of regarding poetry as food is clear, yet absurd to most readers.

Ink dribbling down one’s chin like gravy is the author’s attempt to express the insatiable appetite of a writer being satisfied by eating (reading, writing).

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