W. S. Merwin Named New Poet Laureate

W.S. Merwin has been named the 17th U.S. Poet Laureate for 2010-2011.

"William Merwin’s poems are often profound and, at the same time, accessible to a vast audience," said James Billington, Librarian of Congress. "He leads us upstream from the flow of everyday things in life to half-hidden headwaters of wisdom about life itself. In his poem ‘Heartland,’ Merwin seems to suggest that a land of the heart within us might help map the heartland beyond—and that this ‘map’ might be rediscovered in something like a library, where ‘it survived beyond/ what could be known at the time/ in its archaic/ untaught language/ that brings the bees to the rosemary.’" For information about Merwin and his poetry, visit The Poetry Foundation and the Library of Congress Poetry Page.