W. S. Merwin's Poetic Journey: A Chigoan Critical View

Abstract

The recent critical effort has indicated that William Stanley Merwin known as W. S. Merwin (1927-2019), the American poet and translator is characterized by its variety of themes and implications that are fundamentally concerned with the postmodern era with all its worries and bewilderments. He intends to write poems in a way that is different from those wielded by his contemporaries. He often resorts to the classical and traditional ways of writing poetry for many reasons and justifications. In the eyes of literary critics, Merwin is somehow difficult to be categorized to which literary school or movement does he adhere to or advocate. Thus, the present paper aims at examining Merwin's selected notable poems from the critical perspective of the Chicago school of criticism as attempt to give a critically succinct categorization that suits Merwin's poetic achievement. Merwin is a pioneer in initiating a new era in the American poetry concurring between the revelation of his own personality and Eliot's tenet of impersonality and adhering to no literary movement.