Craft: Louise Bogan

Louise Bogan (1897—1970) was the first woman appointed as Poet Laureate (1945—1946), and a significant 20th century poet. Her first book, Body of This Death, came out in 1923. Her second, Dark Summer, came out in 1929. Bogan made herself into a major poet despite being one of the few women publishing poetry at the time and despite her working class, Irish immigrant background and limited formal education.

Bogan encountering mystery, and mystery encountering Bogan, c. 1932

Bogan perfected formal, yet lyric poems. For example, “Knowledge” is in two tightly controlled rhymed quatrains. The poem’s simplicity belies its wisdom. The speaker’s inner experience is made clearer only in the context of the sound and texture of the natural world.