Word: merwin
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...MERWIN...
This book should win W.S. Merwin, 49, some new fans, especially on college campuses, where he is already a big draw. It may also trouble some older admirers. Ever since his Asian Figures (1973), a collection of sayings from the Korean, Philippine, Chinese and Japanese, Merwin's imagination has been racing eastward. The effect on his poetry is often a studied inscrutability-purposeful but somehow aimless journeys through a landscape of clouds and mountains. Some of his poems seem like private mantras: "Dark rain at/ winter solstice/ and in the morning/ rosemary under clear sky/ bird on south doorstep...
...When Merwin descends to rub his language against the here and now, sparks can fly, as in a poem called "Fishing...
...bulk of The Compass Flower seems too serene to rid itself of fatigued images ("autumn leaves," "salt of the earth") or to prove that its serenity has been earned by struggle. Many Western ears will find it hard to tell whether Merwin is being vatic or phatic...
Said Republican Manuel Lujan Jr. of New Mexico: "They feel that both South Viet Nam and Cambodia have already gone down the tubes and that we've got to take care of ourselves first." Typical of voter reaction that Congressmen heard was the angry observation of Dan Merwin, a fireman in Girard, Ohio: "They're going down the drain without a fight, and we're still talking of sending them hundreds of millions of dollars? I don't understand it. We've got people starving in West Virginia." Echoed a construction worker in Wilmington...