460:, the speaker ponders on how nature and life will continue, as "the water will always fall, and will not fall" and "the grass will always be growing for hay" while "I shall stand here like a shadow" and "nothing will ever stir". While many interpretations of the poem exist, one possible explanation for the bleakness of this poem may revolve around Bogan's depression and solitude after divorcing from her first husband and living in poverty with a daughter in hand. The idea that one would become petrified and lost in time by Medusa is similar to a feeling of loss and despair as one feels helpless and stuck in a situation where one feels their situation is unchangeable. Brett C. Millier, a Professor of Literature at
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Not only was it difficult being a female poet in the 1930s and 1940s, but her lower-middle-class Irish background and limited education also brought on much ambivalence and contradiction for Louise Bogan. She even refused to review women poets in her early career and stated, "I have found from bitter
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contributor Brett C. Millier described her as "one of the finest lyric poets
America has produced." He said, "the fact that she was a woman and that she defended formal, lyric poetry in an age of expansive experimentation made evaluation of her work, until quite recently, somewhat condescending."
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Though open to interpretation, "Medusa" is a poem that revolves around the petrification of the speaker who contemplates the concept of time. In the poem, after the speaker bears witness to the apparition of the Gorgon
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from 1931 until she retired in 1970, shortly before her death, stating: "No more pronouncements on lousy verse. No more hidden competition. No more struggling not to be a square."
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Bogan moved to New York to pursue a career in writing, and her only daughter, Maidie
Alexander, was left in the care of Bogan's parents. In 1920 she left and spent a few years in
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451:"I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" – Louise Bogan
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in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, and criticism, and became the regular poetry reviewer for
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290:(1968). She is also the author of several books of prose and translations. Bogan's awards include two fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the 1955
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447:(revised and recorded on Sinopah 1997 XI) is constructed from speech sounds in Bogan's poem "Little Lobelia."
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experience that one woman poet is at a disadvantage in reviewing another, if the review be not laudatory."
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It was during this time frame that Bogan came to be in contact with influential writers of the time like
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for five years, where she began writing poetry and reading the first issues of
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Louise Bogan and J.V. Cunningham reading and discussing their poems
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A number of autobiographical pieces were published posthumously in
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
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216:. Her education eventually gave her the opportunity to attend
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The Louise Bogan Papers at
Washington University in St. Louis
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She was a strong supporter, as well as a friend, of the poet
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from the
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections
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Four years later, she published her second book of poetry,
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was published with such poems as "The Dream" and "Women."
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Bogan is the author of six poetry collections, including
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What the Woman Lived: Collected letters of Louise Bogan
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Members of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters
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The
Necessity of Form to the Poetry of Louise Bogan
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651:Modern American Poetry: Louise Bogan (1897–1970)
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169:(August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970) was an
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661:"The Dream – Poem by Louise Bogan"
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572:"Louise Bogan's Life and Career"
544:"Louise Bogan's Life and Career"
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173:. She was appointed the fourth
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317:, in 1923. Her second volume,
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298:, and monetary awards from the
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355:Poetry: A Magazine of Verse
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233:Body of This Death: Poems.
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703:Academy of American Poets
681:Louise Bogan in her Prose
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445:I Come Out of Your Sleep
430:Louise Bogan: A Portrait
1312:American Poets Laureate
861:William Carlos Williams
497:. The Poetry Foundation
248:William Carlos Williams
53:more precise citations.
697:Modern American Poetry
656:Biography at poets.org
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422:Journey around My Room
206:Livermore Falls, Maine
113:Livermore Falls, Maine
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237:Dark Summer: Poems,
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925:James Dickey
877:Robert Frost
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813:Louise Bogan
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603:. Retrieved
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125:(1970-02-04)
85:Louise Bogan
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1257:1970 deaths
1252:1897 births
1223:(2019–2022)
1215:(2017–2019)
1207:(2015–2017)
1199:(2014–2015)
1191:(2012–2014)
1183:(2011–2012)
1175:(2010–2011)
1167:(2008–2010)
1149:Donald Hall
1085:Robert Hass
1053:Mark Strand
600:www.une.edu
319:Dark Summer
51:introducing
1246:Categories
1141:Ted Kooser
797:Allen Tate
605:2018-11-30
581:2016-03-22
553:2018-11-27
526:2018-12-01
501:2016-03-22
468:References
442:sound poem
361:Scribner's
349:The Nation
264:Lola Ridge
200:Early life
141:Occupation
106:1897-08-11
59:March 2013
34:references
1229:Ada Limón
1221:Joy Harjo
1101:Rita Dove
1077:Rita Dove
436:in 1986.
378:Bollingen
260:John Reed
1165:Kay Ryan
721:LibriVox
432:, won a
424:(1980).
411:Michigan
302:and the
282:(1923),
134:New York
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177:to the
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458:Medusa
386:poetry
329:, and
327:Goethe
274:Career
266:, and
225:Vienna
149:critic
36:, but
294:from
372:Her
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145:Poet
136:, US
120:Died
100:Born
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