Constance Carrier (July 29, 1908 – December 7, 1991) was an American teacher and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Life

Carrier was descended from

Martha Carrier This is a list of people executed for witchcraft, many of whom were executed during organized witch-hunts, particularly during the 15th–18th centuries. Large numbers of people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe between 1560 and 1630.Levac ...

, one of the women hanged during the notorious Salem witch trials of 1692. The witch trials were the subject of Carrier's last volume of poetry. After graduating from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1929, Carrier taught at New Britain High school, and then five years at Hall High School in West Hartford, before retiring in 1969. She taught several subjects, but is most remembered for teaching

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Her work was published in the ''New Yorker'', ''New York Quarterly'', ''Ploughshares'', ''Poetry'', and ''Harper's''. In the 1960s and 1970s, Carrier published translations of the works three classical Roman writers: the playwright

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

, and the poets

Propertius Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium and died shortly after 15 BC. Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of ''Elegies'' ('). He was a friend of the poets Gallus a ...

and

Tibullus Albius Tibullus ( BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins. Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a fe ...

. The anniversary of her 100th birthday was celebrated in

New Britain, Connecticut New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately southwest of Hartford. According to 2020 Census, the population of the city is 74,135. Among the southernmost of the communities encompassed wit ...

Awards

* ''The Middle Voice'' won the 1954 Lamont Prize, given by the Academy of American Poets. * The

Golden Rose Award The Golden Rose Award, one of America’s oldest literary prizes, was inaugurated in 1919. The rose was modeled after the Gold Rose which is now in the Cluny Museum in Paris. ThNew England Poetry Clubawards the Rose annually for American poetry. ...

from the New England Poetry Club

Works

Poetry

* * *

Translations

* * * * *

Anthologies

References

External links

*
''New Britain'', Arlene C. Palmer, p.32
* Constance Carrie
Papers
in the

Mortimer Rare Book Collection The Mortimer Rare Book Collection (MRBC) is the rare books collection of Smith College. Along with the Sophia Smith Collection and Smith College Archives, it makes up Smith College Special Collections. The collection supports both general researc ...

, Smith College Special Collections Smith College alumni 20th-century American poets Writers from Hartford, Connecticut 1908 births 1991 deaths Latin–English translators American women poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American translators Poets from Connecticut {{US-poet-1900s-stub