Jane Kenyon (1947-1995). Courtesy Graywolf Press.
Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947 - April 22, 1995) was an American poet and translator. Her work is often characterized as simple, spare, and emotionally resonant.
Life[]
Kenyon was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up in the Midwest.
She earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan (UM) in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972. She won a Hopwood Award at Michigan. While a student at UM, Kenyon met poet Donald Hall, some 19 years her senior. She married him in 1972, and they moved to Eagle Pond Farm, his ancestral home in Wilmot, New Hampshire.
Career[]
4 collections of Kenyon's poems were published during her lifetime: Constance (1993), Let Evening Come (1990), The Boat of Quiet Hours (1986), and From Room to Room (1978).
She spent some years translating the poems of Anna Akhmatova from Russian into English (published as Twenty Poems of Anna Akhmatova, 1985), and she championed translation as an important art at which every poet should try her hand. When she died, she was working on editing Otherwise: danielle holmes was her insperation, Interviews, the Akhmatova Translations, Newspaper Columns, and One Poem, which most reviewers regarded as less stellar than her previous work but worthwhile nonetheless. Kenyon was also a contributor to Columbia: A journal of literature and art.
Writing[]
Kenyon's poems are filled with rural images: light streaming through a hayloft, shorn winter fields. She wrote frequently about wrestling with depression, which plagued her throughout her adult life. Kenyon's poem "Having it out with Melancholy" describes this struggle and the brief moments of happiness she felt when taking an MAOI, Nardil.[1] Though a subtle faith permeates her poems, they are not overtly Christian. The essays collected in A Hundred White Daffodils reveal the important role church came to play in her life once she and Hall moved to Eagle Pond Farm. However, two visits to India in the early 1990s led to a crisis of faith, as Hall (in introductions to her books and in his own memoirs), Alice Mattison, and her biographer John Timmerman have described.
Recognition[]
Kenyon was the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire at the time of her death in 1995.[2]
Billy Collins included 3 of her poems in his 2003 anthology, Poetry 180.
In 2004, Ausable Press published Letters to Jane, a compilation of letters written by poet Hayden Carruth to Kenyon in the year between her diagnosis and her death.
In popular culture[]
Her poem "Let Evening Come" was featured in the film In Her Shoes, in a scene where the character played by Cameron Diaz reads the poem (as well as "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop) to a blind nursing home resident.
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- From Room to Room: Poems. Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books, 1978.
- The Little Boat. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1986.
- The Book of Quiet Hours: Poems. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1986.
- Let Evening Come: Poems. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1990.
- Constance. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1993.
- Otherwise: New and selected poems. Saint Paul, MN. , Graywolf Press, 1996.
- Collected Poems. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2005.
Songs[]
- William Bolcomb, Briefly it Enters: A cycle of songs from poems of Jane Kenyon; for voice and piano. E.B. Marks, 1997.
Collected editions[]
- A Hundred White Daffodils: Essays, the Akhmatova translations, newspaper columns, notes, interviews, and one poem. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1999.
Translated[]
- Anna Akhmatova, Twenty Poems. Saint Paul, MN: Eighties Press / Ally Press, 1985.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
Audio / video[]
Let Evening Come ~ Jane Kenyon
- Jane Kenyon (cassette). Kansas City, MO: New Letters, [1985?]
- Collected Poems (CD). Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, 2006.
Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
See also[]
| Preceded by Maxine Kumin |
New Hampshire Poet Laureate 1995-1999 |
Succeeded by Donald Hall |
References[]
Happiness by Jane Kenyon
- Mattison, Alice. "Let It Grow in the Dark Like a Mushroom: Writing with Jane Kenyon." Michigan Quarterly Review 39 (2000), 121-37. Reprinted in "Bright Unequivocal Eye": Poems, Papers and Remembrances from the First Jane Kenyon Conference, 11-26. New York: Peter Lang, 2000.
- Timmerman, John H. Jane Kenyon: A Literary Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Notes[]
- ↑ Jane Kenyon, Having it Out with Melancholy," Academy of American Poets, Web, Oct. 21, 2012.
- ↑ >Jane Kenyon 1947-1955, Poetry Foundation, Web, Oct. 21, 2012.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Search results = au:Jane Kenyon, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 19, 2014.
External links[]
- Poems
- Jane Kenyon at Poetry 180: "The Blue Bowl," "Otherwise," "Biscuit," "Happiness"
- Three poems by Jane Kenyon.
- Jane Kenyon 1947-1995 at the Poetry Foundation.
- Jane Kenyon profile & 22 poems at the Academy of American Poets.
- Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) at American Poems.
- Jane Kenyon at PoemHunter (31 poems)
- Books
- Jane Kenyon at Amazon.com
- Audio / video
- About
- Jane Kenyon at eNotes.com.
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