Tribute to Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz
Tribute to Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz
HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN
OF MASSACHUSETTS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, March 13, 2001
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today
to pay special tribute to Stanley Kunitz, who was born in my hometown
in Worcester, Massachusetts. Stanley Kunitz is an outstanding poet who
began his career in 1930 when he wrote his first book of poems titled
"Intellectual Things". Prior to this book, Stanley Kunitz studied at
Harvard College where he received his BA in 1926 and his MA in 1927. It
was after his years of study that he began writing his first book of
poems. Unfortunately his first book was barely recognized and he did
not publish his second book, "Passport to War", for another fourteen
years. The Second World War interrupted his career, and after returning
from the war he joined the faculty of Bennington College. Although
Stanley Kunitz was years removed from poetry he persevered to
eventually win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 for his first
"Selected Poems".
For a writer whose working life spans thirteen Presidents, Kunitz's commitment is all the more amazing. Stanley Kunitz is realistic and simple, the furthest from extravagant, which at the time when he wrote was rare. This is evident in his opposition to the long epic poem, which was popular in American Poetry during the first half of the twentieth century. What Kunitz's work lacks in glamour it compensates for in serious and influential purpose.
The popularity of Stanley Kunitz's work is evident in his many awards and accomplishments. In addition to his Pulitzer Prize he received the Bollingen Prize, a Ford Foundation grant, the Levinson Prize, and the Shelley Memorial Award to name a few. In 2000 he was named United States Poet Laureate. Stanley Kunitz is the founder of the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and Poets House in New York City. Stanley Kunitz has also worked as a translator, creating English versions of Russian Poems.
Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring Mr. Kunitz for his enthusiasm and commitment to his poetry and society. He truly exemplifies that ability is never ending.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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