3 Poems by Louise Bogan

Louise Bogan 1897-1970

"I cannot believe the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy." - Louise Bogan

William Rose Benet said of Louise Bogan's poetry, "She has inherited the Celtic magic of language, but has blended it...with the tartness of New England."

Born in Livermore Falls, Maine, August 11, 1897, Louise Bogan grew up in an itinerant family. David Bogan, her father, worked for paper mills in various towns across New England. She lived in a variety of boarding houses with her brother, father and mother, May, who had many extramarital affairs. Louise was educated at Girls Latin School, and then Boston University for a year, but turned down a fellowship to Radcliffe to marry. She had a daughter, but the marriage did not last and in 1918 she moved to New York to pursue a writing career leaving her daughter behind with her parents. She spent a few years in Vienna then returned to New York and became acquainted with poet Raymond Holden whom she married in 1925.

Body of This Death: Poems, her first book of poetry, was published in 1923. After her second book, Dark Summer: Poems in 1929, she became poetry editor for the New Yorker. Her marriage dissolved by 1937. After 38 years at the New Yorker, she left saying: "no more pronouncements on lousy verse."




She disdained the confessional style of Robert Lowell, and steered clear from revealing detail from her own life in her personal poetry. However, she wrote to Edmund Wilson that she had had an affair with Theodore Roethke in 1935, and asserted she was not favorably stirred by his poetry at the time. But, she became a friend of Roethke and champion his work. Her achievements include the Bollingen award.

Louise Bogan died of a heart attack in New York City February 4, 1970.

Text of poems:
A Tale
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/poem-guide.html?poem_id=172948

Song for the Last Act
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178041

The Dragonfly
http://www.poetrymountain.com/classics/louisebogan.html#Dragon

Webliography
Wikipedia: Louise Bogan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bogan

Poetry Foundation: Louise Bogan
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=662

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[kkallebb]

There are many recordings of Louise Bogan reading her own poems. The readings are very good, very interesting, I wish someone would post some of them on Youtube.

[Idlinfarm]

" beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy."  I love that. Thank you for reading these wonderful poems.

[HerAeolianHarp]

Oh her poems were made for recital. Nicely done. :) I love the detail and structure in "A Song for the Last Act" (but ask is it ever truly possible to have anyone's face by heart, life and people being so mutable over time). In any case, you read this beautifully. Faved.