Helen Hoyt

Helen Hoyt (1887-1972), from Williamsport Pennsylvania Gazette & Bulletin, Jan. 11, 1915. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Helen Hoyt Lyman (January 22, 1887 - August 2, 1972) was an American poet.

Life

Hoyt was born in Norwalk, Connecticut on January 22, 1887. Her father was Henry M. Hoyt, Governor of Pennsylvania from 1879 to 1893. Her niece was 1920s poet Elinor Wylie,

Helen Hoyt was educated at Barnard College.

In 1921 she married fellow poet William Whittingham Lyman Jr, and so also became known as either Mrs. W.W. Lyman or Helen Hoyt Lyman. The couple moved to St. Helena, California, where Hoyt spent her later years.

Career

Early in her career Hoyt was an associate editor of the literary magazine Poetry, and also had numerous articles and poems published within the magazine from 1913 to 1936. She also edited the September 1916 edition of Others: A magazine of the new verse, the woman's number. Other magazines to publish her work include The Egoist and The Masses.

Aside from her own collections, her work was published in notable anthologies of her times, including The New Poetry: An anthology (1917), The Second Book of Modern Verse (1920) , Silver Pennies: Modern poems for boys and girls (1925), May Days (1926), and The Best Poems of 1931.

In 1932, she wrote the foreword to California Poets: An anthology of 244 contemporaries.

She corresponded with Idella Purnell and Clark Ashton Smith.

Quotation

"At present most of what we know, or think we know, of women has been found out by men, we have yet to hear what woman will tell of herself, and where can she tell more intimately than in poetry?" Others: A Magazine of the New Verse in 1916

Publications

Poetry

• Apples Here in My Basket. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1924.
• Leaves of Wild Grape. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1929.
• The Name of a Rose. San Francisco: Helen Gentry, 1931.
• Poems of Amis. Los Angeles: R.J. Hoffman, 1946.
• A Girl in the City. St. Helena, CA: J.E. Beard, 1970.
• Five Poems. Sattley, CA: Blue Oak Press, 1979.

Non-fiction

• Foreword to California Poets: An anthology of 244 contemporaties. New York: House of Henry Harrison, 1932.

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy WorldCat.

Ellis Park by Helen Hoyt

Poems by Helen Hoyt

1. Rain at Night

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• Helen Hoyt profile & 4 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Helen Hoyt in The New Poetry: An anthology: "Ellis Park," "The New-Born," "Rain at Night," "The Lover Sings of a Garden," "Since I Have Felt the Sense of Death"
• Helen Hoyt 1887-1972 at the Poetry Foundation.
• Hoyt in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Ellis Park," "The Bubbling Fountain," "Annunciation," "The New-born," "Rain at Night," "Since I Have Felt the Sense of Death," "Action Poem," "Poem to be Danced," "Under the Tree," "The Dancer," "To a Vine the Workmen Cut Down," "Arches," "Continuance," "Sky-Humor," "The Letter," "Kin," "Hey Nonino," "Men-Folks," "I Have Found My Beloved," "Stature," "Name," "Difference," "Unity," "Happiness Betrays Me," "Triumph," "Interlude," "At the Museum," "Memory," "Oh We Shall Meet," "Ascension," "The Root," "Chicago," "Encounter," "Automobiles on Sunday," "By the Lake," "Night," "The Stone-age Sea," "When We Are Asleep," "Creator," "Headstone," "There Was a Time"

Audio / video

• Helen Hoyt at YouTube