Lives of the Poets: The Story of One Thousand Years of English & American Poetry

by Louis Untermeyer

A chronologically arranged anthology and history of poetry is supplemented with biographies of the poets

Genres: Biography, Poetry

757 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Louis Untermeyer was the author, editor or compiler, and translator of more than one hundred books for readers of all ages. He will be best remembered as the prolific anthologist whose collections have introduced students to contemporary American poetry since 1919. The son of an established New York jeweler, Untermeyer's interest in poetry led to friendships with poets from three generations, including many of the century's major writers. His tastes were eclectic. Martin Weil related in the Washington Post that Untermeyer once "described himself as 'a bone collector' with 'the mind of a magpie.'" He was a liberal who did much to allay the Victorian myth that poetry is a high-brow art. "What most of us don't realize is that everyone loves poetry," he was quoted by Weil as saying, pointing out the rhymes on the once-ubiquitous Burma Shave road signs as an example.

Untermeyer developed his taste for literature while still a child. His mother had read aloud to him from a variety of sources, including the epic poems "Paul Revere's Ride" and "Hiawatha." Bedtime stories he told to his brother Martin combined elements from every story he could remember, he revealed in Bygones: The Recollections of Louis Untermeyer. When he learned to read for himself, he was particularly impressed by books such as Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Dante's Inferno. Gustave Dore's illustrations in these books captivated him and encouraged his imagination toward fantasy. Almost fifty years later, Untermeyer published several volumes of retold French fairy tales, all illustrated by the famous French artist.

In addition to children's books and anthologies, Untermeyer published collections of his own poetry. He began to compose light verse and parodies during his teen years after dropping out of school to join his father's business. With financial help from his father, he published First Love in 1911. Sentiments of social protest expressed in the 1914 volume Challenge received disapproval from anti-communist groups forty years later; as a result of suspicion, Untermeyer lost his seat on the "What's My Line" game show panel to publisher Bennett Cerf. During the 1970s, he found himself "instinctively, if incongruously, allied with the protesting young," he wrote in the New York Times. In the same article he encouraged the spirit of experiment that characterized the decade, saying, "it is the non-conformers, the innovators in art, science, technology, and human relations who, misunderstood and ridiculed in their own times, have shaped our world." Untermeyer, who did not promote any particular ideology, remained a popular speaker and lecturer, sharing criticism of poetry and anecdotes about famous poets with audiences in the United States and as far away as India and Japan.

Untermeyer resigned from the jewelry business in 1923 in order to give all his attention to literary pursuits. Friendships with Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Arthur Miller, and other literary figures provided him with material for books. For example, The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer contains letters selected from almost fifty years of correspondence with the New England poet. The anthologist's autobiographies From Another World and Bygones relate as much about other writers as they do about his personal life. Bygones provides his reflections on the four women who were his wives. Jean Starr moved to Vienna with Untermeyer after he became a full-time writer; Virginia Moore was his wife for about a year; Esther Antin, a lawyer he met in Toledo, Ohio, married him in 1933; fifteen years later, he married Bryna Ivens, with whom he edited a dozen books for children.

In his later years, Untermeyer, like Frost, had a deep appreciation for country life. He once told Contemporary Authors: "I live on an abandoned farm in Connecticut ... ever since I found my native New York unlivable as well as unlovable.... On these green and sometimes arctic acres I cultivate wha

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Percy Bysshe Shelley~~Rebel Against Reality~~418
Rebel against reality indeed! Oh, I love you Harriet. Just pretend to be my sister and let me muck about with Mary. Yeah, let's call it good.
I'd be calling it quits! By gum, I'm surprised she didn't do him in at that point, pixie charm or not. Perhaps it is because I am no poetic spirit, but that just rubbed me the wrong way. However, this was the first chapter I gravitated to, so it was my own fault my innocence was poisoned. But in reading Mary Shelley by Miranda Seymour I was most curious about this Percy with the weird-as-anything middle name. I loved the middle name, so I kept it for my own little boy. But reading about his conduct, I am starting to wonder if it's such a fabulous idea. Hey, the catholic in-laws might find out!

John Keats~~"Oh, Weep For Adonais"~~444
Since reading his simple statement about a piece of fruit he was eating, I have been smitten forevermore (see review on Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader). And this from a classically-deprived stable boy. Well, near stable boy. But he was born in one! He had the god's ear, but he couldn't have been more lowly in birth in all England's eyes. And so he should be, until about a few decades after his death.

The swift loss of temper I already knew of. Made him all the sweeter to read, really. Effeminate, yet not so, I am sure his face lost all 'delicacy' of form when he was pissed off. And along with his already rooted interest in the glamour of words, his passion went un-noted. And the discovery period was touching, when he found great books: Ovid, Bunyan, Virgil. How easily I can relate there (Ovid and Virgil accepted, of course).

And on this bio goes, and the more bittersweet it becomes, the less likely I feel I should be able to abandon my newfound love for poetry and food writing. Darn these Englishmen all to heck! I'll be the hardest thing to marry off yet.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning~~Victorian Love Story~~478
Eh. Long life might be desirable for most, but in poets, it's just not as interesting. But my Browing-curiosity was piqued some time back, but a late 80's novel called Lady's Maid. I need to return there, and this bio makes me most anxious.

In the Browning's time, England was sick, and in dire need of some serious change (wait, Marx was a Jew??? Wha--?). So along came some soulfulls (what a surprise) to make some chimichangas of the peace. And upon finding "Cry of the Children" it seems they pretty much went and made the whole enchilada. And of course science had to get a few punches in, Darwin rolls over the theo-ortho sun with a few storm clouds, and it was sheer pandemonium (makes one wonder about apes). It's so wonderous, the effects of literature and new discovery, on society. In this instance, they were beginning to rethink the basis of morals. Nice going Brontes. You've un-enslaved the mass mind. Or have they? I haven't been struck by lightning just yet.
John Milton~~Blind Visionary~~170

William Shakespeare~~Nature's Mirror~~75
The only 'William' that has never driven me plumb irate. Yet, the only famous William we will never really know a whole lot about. And unfortunately, watching Shakespeare in Love ain't going to help us much. Too bad. That guy was pretty suave. My thoughts on this monumental visionary are not few, I still have a lot to read from his pen, but I think Coleridge sums him up very nicely: Charming you to gaze upon the movements of Venus and Adonis as you would the twinkling dances of the vernal butterflies. Yes, that does very nicely.


Nineteenth Century Lights and Shadows~~503
Tennyson~Emily Bronte~Christina Rossetti~Thomas Hardy
Well arn't these the ideal troupe.
I heard "In Memorium" in a not so flavorful way. To have it straight up cold from the bottle is a arrow to the side. As before stated: too young is to invite tedium, to be older is to be struck at with a lancet clear.

Emily, Emily, Emily, Emily. Vivified little monster. I am in awe of her father's longevity. Whereas I am no as such in the case of the named author. If it was true that they found letters of malicious critique of Wuthering Heights in her writing desk upon her death, well, then, we have no reason to wonder why she didn't hang around to bother Charlotte longer. And since it was also said that Emily made up Gondal, I probably side with her the most out of the sisters. Even though Charlotte did have a better head for the inviting the readers, she could have done with a little more passion and not as much fidget. But I'm talking just a smidgen here. It's like baking, I think. Too much, and the reader won't really rise to the challenge of taking you on. A fearsome woman. I should be glad never to meet the creature, my tongue would be made of wood.

What a strange little woman, so hidden away in my Immortal Poems copy. It was quite a time before I discovered her genius. It is daunting the way the most probing personalities seem to know you better than you yourself. And judging by the courtship passages, might it not be safe to say Rossetti thought this? Goblin Market: must read.

Hardy is best left alone except in silence. I was a little scarred by some of his stuff as a kid, nearly beaten for laughing at a then racy poem.

The New World~~538
Ralph Waldo Emerson~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~
I like this Untermeyer guy. I should invite him over for some tea. I think he'd like my orange-sage scones. Very much tempted into going into a prolonged rant about the evil deeds of textbooks, my anger was abated by a few simple lines: A Boy's will is the wind's will. And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.

Of course that was followed by an entire paragraph on his truly Puritan family (laughs). And onto his marrying a wife made of glass, and then perhaps the notion of marital deterioration. What is it with all these poets, novelists, and one president anyway? Is fate truly so cruel? If I were to be blunt about housekeeping I would say keep your candles away if you don't want to be crisper than you were before (in which case he lost his wife, a terrible blow). But Hiawatha?? Confound my ignorance! I have read that poem every other year, and I didn't know who the author was until just last night.

The Soul Selects~~578~~Emily Dickinson
[I was indeed selective in what I wanted to blab about in this section. But hey, it's the 'puritan' spitfire. Who could resist?]
I believe it is a remembrance quite common when one discovered Emily Dickenson. I was 10. And from the first poem, something about a train I believe, I was hooked into coming back for answers to modern questions, how to deal with pain, and what I might expect of joy. Though I shouldn't put too much stock in mere human words, Dickenson was as unearthly a thing as we shall ever come into 'contact' with.

[And in my search of the word immured (cooped up) I was delighted to find what the band called Incubus was all about anyway. Apparently they might be demons]

To be frank, my truly puritanistic ancestors treaded through Cotton Mather, but could never make it halfway to decent fun: poetry. They abhorred the darn literary vein, they could scarcely touch Milton for all his religious trappings and so-have-yous. So it was no small surprise that my aunt got a little fidgety upon my reliquishing a copy of her poems (complete nonetheless) from my pack.
Extreme displeasure really.

But it is easy to ignore when you have the caged bird poet sitting right in front of you. There is no better place to traverse than into another's "domain" that mirrors yours.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

After AP Chemistry turned me off to the physical sciences I turned towards History and English classes. Both were enjoyable, both inspiring. The teachers were, without exception, good and engaging. A lot of my high school friends were very much into poets and poetry and I myself enjoyed interpreting the older pieces as a classroom exercise.
Starting with the sophomore year I began to get serious about really mastering Western history and English literature, reading quite a bit on my own as a supplement to schoolwork. This and, I think, some Penguin series on English poetry were read to cover the ground not covered in class.

[Trey]

This book contains relatively quick-read bios of the best and brightest (according to Untermeyer) of English-language poets. A very interesting and engaging read. I enjoyed it.

[Alice Rackham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very informative -- great book for my poetry class this term.

[E.J. Cullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding