Bogan, Louise (Vol. 4) - Bogan, Louise 1897–1970
Bogan, Louise 1897–1970
An American poet and critic, Louise Bogan served as poetry critic for The New Yorker for thirty years. She was a fine lyric poet whose "spiritual ancestors," according to Theodore Roethke, were Campion, Jonson, and the anonymous Elizabethan writers. Her work won many important prizes. (See also Contemporary Authors, obituary, Vols. 25-28.)
Miss Bogan's themes are the reasons of the heart that reason does not know, the eternal strangeness of time in its periods and its passage, the curious power of art. Her mood is oftenest a sombre one, relieved not by gaiety but by a sardonic wit. She is primarily a lyricist. Not for nothing does the word "song" recur repeatedly in her titles, as, among others, "Juan's Song", "Chanson Un Peu Naïve", "Song for a Slight Voice", "Song for a Lyre", "Spirit's Song". It is the spirit's song that Louise Bogan sings, even when her subject is the body. The texture of her verse is...
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