1. For The Anniversary of My Death By: W.S. Merwin
Student

2. Merwin’s Early Life Born September 30, 1927 Childhood College
Princeton University (Class of 1948)
Married Dorothy Jeanne Ferry
Translator
Met and Married Dido Milroy in Europe

3. Merwin’s Major Works 1952- A Mask for Janus 1956- Green with Beasts
Yale Series of Younger Poets
1956- Green with Beasts
1960- The Drunk in the Furnace
1967- The Lice
“For The Anniversary of My Death”
YouTube - W.S. Merwin reading in Berkeley 1998

4. Significance of the Poem in History
1967
Civil Rights
LBJ exits office
Counterculture
Vietnam War
Merwin = Conservative = Hates Vietnam War
TRANSLATION: The poem was a stab at Vietnam

5. Significance of the Poem in Merwin’s Life
Recent Divorce
Remarriage
Friendship
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

6. Breakdown of the Poem

7. Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
Vietnam Look
Looking forward
Coming home
Death
Personal Outlook
Views it as if it is a birthday
Future- Death
Past- Birthday

8. When the last fires will wave to me
Vietnam
A soldier in Hell waving goodbye
Death
Going home
Personal
Afterlife view
FIRE + DEATH = HELL

9. And the silence will set out
Vietnam
Leaving the violence for home
Silence
Death
Personal
Emptiness in the afterlife

10. Tireless traveller Vietnam Personal Soldier
A long life leading to nothing

11. Like the beam of a lightless star
Vietnam
Death for an unknown cause
Thing without a source
Personal
Emptiness and nothingness of something thought to be great

12. Then I will no longer/ find myself in life as in a strange garment
Vietnam
Literally
Uniforms and fighting in them and for what they stand for
Vietnam is like a straightjacket
Personal
Stuck in the formality of life
He wants to break free
Writing styles

13. Surprised at the earth Vietnam Personal
Government calling for the war when it has no evidence
Imperialistic world
Personal
The goings on in earth around him
Friendship

14. And the love of one woman
Vietnam
Innocence of women in the war
Personal
Reflection on things he sees on earth
His own relationship with his wives
Looking at his friend’s relationship with women

15. And the shamelessness of men
Vietnam
Shameless killings of people
Hidden shot at the government
Personal
Reflection on things he sees on earth
Looking at himself in the mirror
Looking at men in general

16. As today writing after three days of rain
Vietnam
Switch of views
Back home
Personal
Away from death looking back at himself in the present
After a tough time in his life
Divorce
Friendship with Hughes

17. Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
Vietnam
Hearing the sounds back home
A glimpse of beauty after the war
Personal
He is hearing reality again after talking about his death

18. And bowing not knowing to what
Vietnam
Still clueless about the importance and reasoning of the war
Don’t know why the soldiers had to go in the first place
Personal
Not knowing what to believe about spiritual world
Afterlife dilemma

19. Poetic Devices
“Merwin had honed the form we most often associate with him: the spare and sometimes epigrammatic line, simple language, and the absence of allusion, myth, rhyme, and punctuation” (Gordon).
Enjambment throughout
Simile
Like the beam of a lightless star

20. Low diction “No Style” style Improper meter Voice
Free verse if anything
Improper meter
No stress pattern
No Rhyme scheme
Voice
3rd Person POV
Merwin’s own voice

21. The Big Finish Political shot about the Vietnam war
Shows his own insecurities about death
DEATH = NOTHINGNESS

22. Works Cited
Gordon, Lois. "W.S. Merwin. "Contemporary Poets. 4th ed
Jones, Peter. 50 American Poets. London: Pan Books, 1980.
Merwin, William Stanley. The Lice. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1969.
Ousby, Ian. "W.S. Merwin."The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English
Parker, Peter. "W.S. Merwin."A Reader's Guide to Twentieth Century Writers
Pericles, Hamlet. "Poetry analysis: For the Anniversary of My Death, by W.S. Merwin." Helium. 18 JAN Apr 2008 < 2008for-anniversary-death>.
"Poetry Criticism: W. S. Merwin." Enotes.com. 15 Apr. 25 Apr 2008 <
"W.S. Merwin." Poets.org Academy of American Poets. 14 Apr 2008 <