Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947 – April 22, 1995) 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 writte ...
and
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
. Her work is often characterized as simple, spare, and emotionally resonant. Kenyon was the second wife of poet, editor, and critic
Donald Hall who made her the subject of many of his poems.
Life
Kenyon was born in 1947 in
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
to Ruele and Pauline, she grew up in the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
. She earned a B.A. from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972. She won a
Hopwood Award at Michigan. As a university student Kenyon met poet
Donald Hall; though he was some nineteen years her senior, she married him in 1972, and they moved to his ancestral home in
Wilmot,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
. Kenyon was New Hampshire's
poet laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
when she died on April 22, 1995 from
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
.
Career
Four collections of Kenyon's poems were published during her lifetime: ''From Room to Room'' (1978), ''The Boat of Quiet Hours'' (1986), ''Let Evening Come'' (1990) and ''Constance'' (1993); apart from the former being published through
Alice James Books
Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington.
History and mission
"Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, MA in 197 ...
, all of her writing was released through
Graywolf Press
Graywolf Press is an Independent publisher, independent, non-profit publishing, publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
Graywolf Press collaborates with organizations such as the Co ...
. She spent some years translating the poems of
Anna Akhmatova from
Russian into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, and she championed
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
as an important art that every poet should try.
Kenyon's poems are filled with rural images: light streaming through a hayloft, shorn winter fields. She wrote frequently about wrestling with depression, which plagued her throughout her adult life. Kenyon's poem "Having it out with Melancholy" describes this struggle and the brief moments of happiness she felt when taking an
MAOI
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are a class of drugs that inhibit the activity of one or both monoamine oxidase enzymes: monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) and monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B). They are best known as effective antidepressants, especi ...
,
Nardil. However, two visits to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in the early 1990s led to a crisis of faith, as Hall (in introductions to her books and in his own memoirs),
Alice Mattison, and her biographer John Timmerman have described.
Kenyon was also a contributor to ''
Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art''.
Prior to her death, she was editing the collection ''Otherwise: New and Selected Poems''. Kenyon's papers, including manuscripts, personal journals, and notebooks are held at the University of New Hampshire Library Special Collections and Archives.
In popular culture
"Let Evening Come" was featured in the 2005 film ''
In Her Shoes'', in a scene where the character played by
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress. With a variety of works in film, she is widely recognised for her work in romantic comedies and animation. Diaz has received various accolades, including nominations for ...
reads the poem (as well as "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop) to a blind nursing home resident.
"Having it out with Melancholy" has been read by Amanda Palmer o
Brain Pickings
Awards
*1994
PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry The PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry is given biennially to an American poet whose distinguished and growing body of work to date represents a notable and accomplished presence in American literature.
The award is one of many PEN awards sponsored by ...
Bibliography
* ''From Room to Room'' (November 1, 1978)
* ''The Boat of Quiet Hours'' (October 24, 1986)
* ''Let Evening Come'' (April 30, 1990)
* ''Constance'' (July 12, 1993)
* ''Otherwise: New & Selected Poems'' (March 2, 1996; posthumous release)
* ''Collected Poems'' (September 1, 2005; posthumous anthology release)
Notes
References
*
*
*
External links
Poems by Jane Kenyon and biography at PoetryFoundation.org
Biography from the Academy of American PoetsThree poems by Jane Kenyon"The Grandmother Poem", a reminiscence by Donald Hall
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyon, Jane
1947 births
1995 deaths
20th-century American poets
Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan
People from Wilmot, New Hampshire
English–Russian translators
Russian–English translators
University of Michigan alumni
Poets from Michigan
Poets from New Hampshire
Poets Laureate of New Hampshire
Deaths from leukemia
Deaths from cancer in New Hampshire
American women poets
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American translators
Hopwood Award winners