Mark Strand and The Continuous Life: A Biography

Mark Strand and The Continuous Life: A Biography

            Mark Strand’s writing is highly regarded by critics and fans alike, as evidenced by his many awards and distinctions, which include the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for the collection Blizzard of One and his appointment as Poet Laureate of the United States in 1990. Over the last 40 years, Strand has written both poetry and prose, and has also served as editor and translator for various poetry collections (Mark Strand). He has also taught at many prestigious American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins, and is currently working at at Columbia University in New York City as Professor of English and Comparative Literature (“Mark Strand –Poets.org”).

Strand is considered by many literary critics to be among the most influential and prominent of contemporary American poets. Born on April 11, 1934, in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Strand grew up in he United States and lived in many different American cities due to the nature of his father’s profession as a salesman (“Mark Strand”). In his adolescence, Strand was very interested in painting. He had aspirations of becoming a professional artist, studying painting at Yale and receiving a B.F.A. in 1959. He also earned his B.A. at Antioch College in 1957, but around this time his interests shifted, and he began to concentrate instead on poetry. Following his graduation from college, he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar studying 19^th century Italian poetry, and subsequently earned a M.F.A. from the University of Iowa (“Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation”).

Since the completion of his formal education, Strand has been an active American poet, publishing over 15 collections of original works between 1964 and the present. His work is known for its elements of absence, and he often wrote in his early years on darker themes such as death and evoked feelings of general uneasiness (“Mark Strand –Poets.org”). The speakers in his poems are frequently in a state of unrest, and struggle with self-identity and the meaning of their place in the world. There is a sense of “apprehension and foreboding” in Strand’s earlier work, according to Thomas McClanahan, and this sense has continued somewhat throughout his writing career. However, his later works have grown to embrace and affirm life and are somewhat broader in their scope of emotions (“Mark Strand”). Strand’s poetry is also recognized as having frequent elements of surrealism: many of his poems, especially his more recent work, are set in dreams or use dream-like imagery. Finally, Strand is often noted for his use of precise and vivid language, writing with a clarity that has been described as “reminiscent of the paintings of Edward Hopper” (Parini, "Mark Strand's Life and Career").

Strand’s 1990 work The Continuous Life, published the same year Strand was named Poet Laureate, marked his return to poetry after a ten-year break, as he spent the 1980’s concentrating on short stories and books for children (“Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation”). The collection does indeed reflect an increase in Strand’s diversity, with a wide scope of subjects and themes and the inclusion of more humor, as well as several longer narrative works that are more prose than poetry (Aaron, "Mark Strand's Life and Career"). It also demonstrates Strand’s overall development as an author, and notable reviewers’ comments on the book were overwhelmingly positive, praising a new depth and breadth in Strand’s writing. Perhaps Michael Dirda put it most bluntly in his review of the collection: "These are terrific poems. Mark Strand's not the poet laureate for nothing" (“Mark Strand”).

Bibliography of Mark Strand’s Published Poetry Books

    * Sleeping with One Eye Open. New York: Stone Wall Press, 1964.

    * Reasons for Moving: Poems. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

    * Darker: Poems, including "The New Poetry Handbook”. New York: Atheneum,                         1970.

    * The Story of Our Lives. New York: Atheneum, 1973.

    * The Sargentville Notebook. Providence: Burning Deck, 1973.

    * Elegy for My Father. Vancouver: Windhover, 1978.

    * The Late Hour. New York: Atheneum, 1978.

    * Selected Poems, including "Keeping Things Whole". New York: Atheneum, 1980.

    * The Continuous Life. New York: Knopf, 1990.

    * Selected Poems. New York: Knopf, 1990.

    * The Monument. New York: Ecco Press, 1991.

    * Dark Harbor: A Poem, long poem divided into 55 sections. New York: Knopf, 1993.

    * Blizzard of One: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1998.

    * Chicken, Shadow, Moon & More, with illustrations by the author. New York:

Turtle Point Press, 1999.

    * Man and Camel. New York: Knopf, 2006.

    * New Selected Poems. New York: Knopf, 2007.

Works Cited

Aaron, Jonathan. "Mark Strand's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry, University of           Illinois. 1995. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.            <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/life.htm>.

"Mark Strand." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Gale Biography In     Context. Web. 5 Feb. 2011.

<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow ?displayGroupName=Reference&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CH1000095816&mode=view&userGroupName=inspire&jsid=b40b90ce289ad04dca1b80cc108a62d7>.

"Mark Strand: The Poetry Foundation.” The Poetry Foundation: Find Poems and Poets.  

            Discover Poetry. Web. 5 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ 

            mark-strand>.

"Mark Strand – Poets.org." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 5 Feb. 2011.    <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/102>.

Parini, Jay. "Mark Strand's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois.        1994. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.        

<http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/life.htm>.