PagineMerwin wrote spare, unpunctuated poems about nature, loss and the environment, and planted a rainforest on his land in Hawaii. He was US Poet Laureate in 2010–11.
We only host poems that are in the public domain, so this page has no poem texts.
W. S. Merwin’s books are in copyright. Borrow them from a library or buy them from the publisher:
W. S. Merwin’s poems are still protected by copyright, so we don’t reproduce them. This page links to legal places to read them: the poet’s publishers, your local library, the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets, which share many poems with permission.
The Carrier of Ladders (1970), The Shadow of Sirius (2008).