In the Winter of My Thirty-eighth Year (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: W. S. Merwin
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Poetry or poets, Fate or fatalism, Clocks or watches, Middle age, Time, Aging, Winter, Stars, Morning
The Poem
“In the Winter of My Thirty-Eighth Year” is a free-verse, unpunctuated, twenty-two line meditative lyric, divided into five unequal sections. The speaking “I” is clearly the author. The title of the poem calls to mind the famous opening line of Dante’s Divine Comedy (c. 1320), “At midpoint of the journey of our life.” The Florentine poet meant by that midpoint the age of thirty-five, regarded—in biblical terms—as the apex of manhood and creativity. Viewed in this light, the poem might be said to hold that central place in W. S. Merwin’s...
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