One of the major characteristics of Van Duyn's poetry is the connection of the everyday disappointments or frustrations or crisis to a lighter, higher sense of self and others. The imagery of her poems floods the senses with universal symbolism. Her skills present the ordinary as extraordinary. The theme of her poetry often centers on love.
At first glance, this poet's choice of words and simplicity of ideas may give a gauche impression, perhaps because there are plenty of ordinary images such as dogs or earth quakes; furthermore, these images intertwine with the presentation of a relationship between lovers. Mona writes, then thinks; as a result, she feels. Ultimately, "she lives through language" as noted by William Logan, a critic of poetry. He further observes, "Her brisk, slightly wacky sense of language is the fitful and intimate counterpart of a grace achieved through awkwardness." http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s...
Indeed, it is Mona's delicate balance between the commonplace issues and the universal experiences of life, which dubs Van Duyn's unique poetic style close to poets such as Auden. The exception is that Mona's poems appear more sociable and lofty as opposed to the deeper levels of the philosophy of life. This tone is a result of her graceful rhyming schemes.
Mona was born in Waterloo, Iowa in the year 1921. Her education led her to a career of teaching, mostly at Washington University located in St.Louis, Missouri. As a poet, her career was very successful. In 1947, she and her husband founded a literary magazine ntitled "Perspective, A Quarterly of Literature". She also published nine books and many of her poems are included in various anthologies of American Poetry. Awards for excellence in poetry are numerous including the Pulitzer Prize for which she won in 1990, for her book Near Changes, and in 1970 her book To See, To Take earned her a National Book Award.
This poet also earned the Bollingen Prize, the Hart Crane Memorial Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize, the Loines Prize of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize and the Eunice Tietjens Award from Poetry, and the Shelley Memorial Prize, as well as fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. : http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prm...
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