Half Sun Half Sleep: New Poems

by May Swenson

Genres: Poetry

hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

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 lived with her partner, the author R.R. Knudson. During her prolific career, Swenson received numerous literary awards and nominations for her poetry. She taught and served as poet-in-residence at many institutions in both the United States and Canada, and she held fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. She was the recipient of the Shelley Memorial Award, the Bollingen Prize, and Award in Literature from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She received an honorary degree from Utah State University as well as their Distinguished Service Gold Medal. Swenson was a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1980-1989.

-- from The Poetry Foundation

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought most of the poems on the last 40 pages were great but most of the poems that came before these did not do much for me. Not sure why. My deficiency or a deficiency in the earlier poems?

[Isaac Timm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of repeated poems from other books I've read, but it gives a fair slice of the many types of poem she has written. I think it would be a good place to start reading May Swenson's work. But it may be hard to find, I believe there is lot of "May Out West" copies in print, and a few complete works collection out there.