W.S. Merwin

Photograph by Douglas Kent Hall / ZUMA Press

W.S. Merwin

Born: 30 September 1927 • Died: 15 March 2019

William Stanley (W.S.) Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and raised in New Jersey and Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of a Presbyterian minister. His numerous collections of poetry, his translations, and his books of prose have won praise over seven decades. He won nearly every award available to an American poet, and he was named U.S. poet laureate twice. His first collection of poetry, A Mask for Janus (1952), was chosen for the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Merwin is also an accomplished and prolific translator of poetry. Merwin died in March 2019 at the age of 91. (Source)

Poems by W.S. Merwin

As Though I Was Waiting For That by W.S. Merwin

September 30, 2026

“for no reason / hearing no voice / with no promise / praying to myself / be clear” — W.S. Merwin