Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 23, 2001

Volume 29, Number 20

Bollingen Prize in Poetry honors 'anguish
and humor' of Louise Glück's 'Vita Nova'

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück has won Yale's prestigious Bollingen Prize in Poetry for her 1999 book "Vita Nova."

The award is presented every two years by the Yale University Library to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry.

A panel of three judges -- Bonnie Costello, professor of English at Boston University, and poets Henri Cole and Karl Kirchwey -- selected Glück for the 2001 Bollingen Prize. "In the work of no other contemporary American poet is the individual psyche so unsparingly portrayed, in both the anguish and the humor with which it confronts its profound solitude and the twin darknesses, which precede birth and follow life," wrote the judges in their statement announcing the winner.

Published by Ecco Press, "Vita Nova" draws on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice "to explore repeated cycles of despair and hope in modern life, and the difficult process of renewal," said the judges, noting that Glück introduces elements from other genres -- such as epic, narrative, parable, prayer, dialogue and song -- into her lyrics.

"She deals with powerful emotions, expressed in a language of surpassing clarity and spareness, full of passion and devoid of sentiment," they added. (See excerpt, below.)

Glück, who was educated at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, studied with two previous winners of the Bollingen Prize -- Leonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz. She has served on the faculty of Williams College since 1984.

Glück's poetry collections include "Firstborn" (1968), "The House on Marshland" (1975), "The Garden" (1976), "Descending Figure" (1980), "The Triumph of Achilles" (1985), "Ararat" (1990), "The Wild Iris" (1992) and "Meadowlands" (1996). She is also author of the 1994 book "Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry." Her next book of poems, "The Seven Ages," will be released by Ecco Books in April.

Glück received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1993 for "The Wild Iris." Her many other awards include the PEN/Martha Allbrand Nonfiction Prize, the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Bobbitt National Prize from the Library of Congress, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, a Lannan Foundation Award and the Ambassador's Award from the English Speaking Union.

Established by Paul Mellon in 1949, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry includes a cash award of $50,000. Previous winners include Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, W.H. Auden, E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost, James Merrill, John Hollander and John Ashbery.

The Queen of Carthage

Brutal to love,
more brutal to die.
And brutal beyond the reaches of justice
to die of love.

In the end Dido
summoned her ladies in waiting
that they might see
the harsh destiny inscribed for her by the Fates.

She said, "Aeneas
came to me over the shimmering water;
I asked the Fates
to permit him to return my passion,
even for a short time. What difference
between that and a lifetime: in truth, in such moments,
they are the same, they are both eternity.

I was given a great gift
which I attempted to increase, to prolong.
Aeneas came to me over the water: the beginning
blinded me.

Now the Queen of Carthage
will accept suffering as she accepted favor:
to be noticed by the Fates
is some distinction after all.

Or should one say, to have honored hunger,
since the Fates go by that name also."

-- From "Vita Nova" by Louise Glück

Other poetry stories in this issue

Graduate students give voice to their poetry in colloquium

Valesio group is 'an ongoing poem'

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

New Berkeley College master named

Bollingen Prize in Poetry honors 'anguish and humor' of Louise Glück's 'Vita Nova'

Yale Glee Club salutes music's power to mold lifelong friendships

Architect Cesar Pelli to design Yale's new engineering building

Comedian Carlin shares tales from his 'very lucky' life

Yale College term bill is set at $34,030

Bentley Layton appointed to Goff chair in religious studies

Race is not a factor in the delivery of mental health services . . .

Graduate students give voice to their poetry in colloquium

Valesio group is 'an ongoing poem'

Candid close-ups are Yale police officer's hobby

Pioneering nurses will be honored at center's annual convocation

Grant to support field research by F&ES students

YUHS names new medical director

Pianist (and trained chemist) makes his faculty debut

Shakespeare-inspired music will be featured in concert by Yale Jazz Ensemble

Campus Notes