Poetry Connection

8,657 poems196 poets · 750 BC to todaySince 2003

Poets/Mark Strand

Mark Strand

1934–2014

Poems
16
Reader comments
61
Portrait of Mark Strand
Mark Strand 1934–2014
1934Born

Biography

Mark Strand, former Poet Laureate of the United States, won numerous grants and awards, including the Bobbitt and Bollingen Poetry Prizes, a MacArthur fellowship, and Ingram Merrill, Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and NEA grants. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Blizzard of One, which was published in 1999. Mark's eight other volumes of poetry include Reasons for Moving, The Monument, The Continuous Life and Dark Harbor.

He also published a collection of stories, numerous translations, and several anthologies. In addition, Mark has written extensively on contemporary art, including a book on the painter Edward Hopper. Mark was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and was raised and educated in the United States. He also taught in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

From readers

What readers say about Mark Strand

  1. On Keeping Things Whole

    “This poem is no Holocaust. It is beautifully profound because it is a split between the narrorator having massive importance and being nothing at all. It is such an elusive feeling and to be able to portray it through words is amazing.He views his life as inconsequential, but he is also of the…”

  2. On Eating Poetry

    “I believe the reference to the dogs is refering to the animal that is unleashed as he devours the poetry. Consuming the poetry has brought him to this snimal-like, spontaneous state of mind that he refers to as being "a new man".”

  3. On The Story Of Our Lives

    “"The Story of Our Lives" is at once desolate and beautiful as it exposes inertia, love lost and the pain therein. Mark Strand is genius in his ability to concisely describe human vulnerability and stark emotional pain.”

  4. On So You Say

    “May be I can Say When the sun arriving a day in here, - in Aisa, You may live in the night, that I left it behind... When you miss a spring, may be... I will be in a spring without missing... When you touch a love somewhere in there, I would be in a dream of love... But this must be certain, the…”

  5. On The New Poetry Handbook

    “I thout that this poem was pretty good, but it had, 2 me, 2 many empty answers. it tried to make you think about the meaning of everyline, and then wen u did, sumtimes, it would lead to more of this. i normally enjoy this, however i beleive it does not leave enuf answered. (sorry for the way of…”

  6. On Lines For Winter

    “i found myself thinking of Adrienne Rich's little known poem, "Song", while reading this...particularly the last stanza: "If I'm lonely it's with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore in the last red light of the year that knows what it is, that knows it's neither ice nor mud nor winter light but wood…”

Where readers gather

Most discussed

  1. The New Poetry Handbook22 comments
  2. Keeping Things Whole12 comments
  3. Lines For Winter9 comments
  4. Eating Poetry6 comments
  5. The Story Of Our Lives4 comments
  6. Courtship3 comments
  7. Answers1 comment
  8. From The Long Sad Party1 comment
  9. So You Say1 comment
  10. The Remains1 comment

All 16 poems

The Late Hour · 1973 · 1 poem
  1. From The Long Sad Party1
Blizzard Of One · 2000 · 1 poem
  1. A Piece Of The Storm
Other poems · 14
  1. My Mother On An Evening In Late Summer1979
  2. Eating Poetry19806
  3. Keeping Things Whole198012
  4. "The Dreadful Has Already Happened"
  5. Answers1
  6. Coming To This
  7. Courtship3
  8. Giving Myself Up
  9. Lines For Winter9
  10. So You Say1
  11. The New Poetry Handbook22
  12. The Remains1
  13. The Room1
  14. The Story Of Our Lives4