May Swenson

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May Swenson


Born
in Logan, Utah, The United States
May 28, 1913

Died
December 04, 1989

Genre


Anna Thilda May "May" Swenson was born in Logan, Utah to Swedish immigrant parents—and she grew up speaking Swedish at home. Swenson earned a BA from Utah State University and briefly worked as a reporter in Salt Lake City. She moved to New York City in the 1930s. Swenson is considered one of mid-twentieth-century America’s foremost poets.

Swenson’s poetry was widely praised for its precise and beguiling imagery, and for the quality of its personal and imaginative observations. Swenson’s ability to draw out the metaphysical implications of the material world were widely commented on; but she was also known for her lighthearted, even joyous, take on life.

Swenson left New York City in 1967, when she moved to Sea Cliff, Long Island where she li
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Average rating: 4.08 · 1,172 ratings · 155 reviews · 88 distinct worksSimilar authors
Nature: Poems Old and New

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4.21 avg rating — 96 ratings — published 1994 — 4 editions
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The Love Poems of May Swenson

4.18 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 1991 — 2 editions
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The Complete Love Poems

4.24 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 2003 — 2 editions
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Collected Poems

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4.35 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions
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New & Selected Things Takin...

4.21 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1978 — 3 editions
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In Other Words

4.10 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 1987 — 6 editions
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May Out West

3.81 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1996
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Iconographs

4.35 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1970 — 3 editions
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To Mix with Time: New and S...

3.89 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1963 — 5 editions
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Half Sun Half Sleep: New Poems

3.94 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1967 — 2 editions
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More books by May Swenson…
Quotes by May Swenson  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Love came bearing love
A chalice of light
We bathed in love and drank it
Then our flesh
Seemed like the leaves
Enameled bright forever.”
May Swenson

“Body my house
my horse my hound
What will I do
when you are fallen
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
When Body my good
bright dog is dead
How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
with cloud for a shift
how will I hide?”
May Swenson

“Take earth for your own large room and the floor of earth carpeted with sunlight and hung round with silver wind for your dancing place.”
May Swenson

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