Edgar Bowers
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Edgar Bowers (; March 2, 1924 – February 4, 2000) was an American
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 wri ...
who won the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1989."Edgar Bowers"
Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
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Biography

Bowers was born in Rome, Georgia, in 1924. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, he joined the military and worked in
counter-intelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ot ...
against
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. He graduated from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
in 1950 and di
graduate work
in English literature at Stanford University. Bowers published several books of poetry, including ''The Form of Loss'', ''For Louis Pasteur'' and ''The Astronomers''. He won two fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and taught at Duke University and the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
. In Bowers's obituary, the English poet Clive Wilmer wrote, "The title poem of his 1990 collection, ''For Louis Pasteur'', announces his key loyalties. He confessed to celebrating every year the birthdays of three heroes: Pasteur, Mozart and
Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...
, all of whom suggest admiration for the life of the mind lived at its highest pitch — a concern for science and its social uses, and a love of art that is elegant, cerebral and orderly." Another aspect of Bowers is highlighted by Thom Gunn on the back of Bowers's ''Collected Poems'': "Bowers started with youthful stoicism, but the feeling is now governed by an increasing acceptance of the physical world." That 'physical world' encompasses sex and love which are refracted through his restrained and lapidary lines. The effect of this contrast is striking: at once balanced and engaged; detached but acutely aware of sensual satisfactions. Bowers' style owes much to the artistic ethos of
Yvor Winters Arthur Yvor Winters (October 17, 1900 – January 25, 1968) was an American poet and literary critic. Life Winters was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived there until 1919 except for brief stays in Seattle and in Pasadena, where his grandparen ...
, under whom Bowers studied at Stanford, but his achievement far surpasses that of his mentor, and his other students, such as J. V. Cunningham. He often wrote in rhyme, but also produced some of the finest
blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...
in the English language. He wrote very little (his ''Collected Poems'' weighs in at 168 pages), due no doubt to the careful consideration behind every single line. But that care never forecloses on the wilder aspects of human existence — the needs, joys and violence. Bowers retired in 1991 and died in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in 2000.


References


Publications

* ''The Form of Loss'' (Alan Swallow, 1956) * ''The Astronomers'' (Alan Swallow, 1965) * ''Living Together'' ( David R. Godine, 1973) * ''For Louis Pasteur'' (
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
, 1989) * ''Collected Poems'' (
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, 1997)


External links


Bowers's page at poets.org

Clive Wilmer's Guardian obituary

Edgar Bowers Collection
at Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library 1924 births 2000 deaths People from Rome, Georgia University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Poets from Georgia (U.S. state) Stanford University alumni Duke University faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Bollingen Prize recipients 20th-century American poets American military personnel of World War II {{US-poet-1920s-stub