Friday, March 20, 2020

List of Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.

List of Poets Laureate of the U.S.A. Who are all the poets who have served the Library of Congress as Consultant (the old title) or Poet Laureate Consultant (the new title)? Learn more about the lives and works of these distinguished artists through the resources listed below. 1937-1949 Joseph Auslander 1937-41: His sonnet, â€Å"To My Despoiler†Allen Tate 1943-44: His essay on writing poetry, â€Å"Narcissus As Narcissus†Robert Penn Warren 1944-45Louise Bogan 1945-46Karl Shapiro 1946-47Robert Lowell 1947-48Leonie Adams 1948-49Elizabeth Bishop 1949-50 1950s Conrad Aiken 1950-52: First to serve two termsWilliam Carlos Williams: Appointed to serve two terms in 1952 but did not serve.Randall Jarrell 1957-58Robert Frost 1958-59Richard Eberhart 1959-61: â€Å"A Student’s Memories of Richard Eberhart,† by David Graham 1960s Louis Untermeyer 1961-63: His poems â€Å"Prayer,† â€Å"Summons† and â€Å"On the Birth of a Child† and â€Å"Reveille†Howard Nemerov 1963-64Reed Whittemore 1964-65Stephen Spender 1965-66James Dickey 1966-68William Jay Smith 1968-70: His â€Å"Epigrams† 1970s William Stafford 1970-71Josephine Jacobsen 1971-73Daniel Hoffman 1973-74Stanley Kunitz 1974-76Robert Hayden 1976-78William Meredith 1978-80 1980s Maxine Kumin 1981-82Anthony Hecht 1982-84Robert Fitzgerald 1984-85: Appointed and served in a health-limited capacity, but did not come to the Library of CongressReed Whittemore 1984-85: Interim Consultant in Poetry  Gwendolyn Brooks 1985-86  Robert Penn Warren 1986-87: First to be designated Poet Laureate Consultant in PoetryRichard Wilbur 1987-88Howard Nemerov 1988-90 1990s Mark Strand 1990-91Joseph Brodsky 1991-92Mona Van Duyn 1992-93Rita Dove 1993-95: Her poem, â€Å"Lady Freedom Among Us†Robert Hass 1995-97:  Poems, translations, bibliography and articles about Hass’ workRobert Pinsky 1997-2000​:  His Favorite Poem Project 2000s Stanley Kunitz 2000-2001​Billy Collins 2001-2003: His Poetry 180 Project to bring poetry into American high schoolsLouise Glà ¼ck 2003-2004Ted Kooser 2004-2005: Excerpt from his book, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Practical Advice for Beginning PoetsDonald Hall 2006-2007: His reading of, â€Å"Poetry Across the Atlantic,† in a historic joint reading with U.S. Poet Laureate Hall and UK Poet Laureate Andrew MotionCharles Simic 2007-2008Kay Ryan 2008-2010:  Her poems, audio readings and podcasts 2010s W.S. Merwin 2010-2011Philip Levine 2011-2012Natasha Trethewey 2012-

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Bills, Bolls, and Bulls

Bills, Bolls, and Bulls Bills, Bolls, and Bulls Bills, Bolls, and Bulls By Mark Nichol The Latin noun bulla, meaning â€Å"knob† or â€Å"round swelling,† is the source of a family of words starting with b followed by a vowel and the l sound (and sometimes additional letters and sounds), which are listed and defined in this post. Ball (in senses pertaining to a round object) and related words such as ballistics are cognates of words derived from bulla; like that term, they stem from a proto-Indo-European root meaning â€Å"blow† or â€Å"swell,† though by way of a Germanic language rather than Latin. (The word for a fancy dance party, and its derivative ballet, by contrast, are from a proto-Indo-European root meaning â€Å"reach† or â€Å"throw†; though one can throw a ball that is an object as well as one that is an event, the roots are apparently unrelated.) Meanwhile, bell (and bellow) likely stem from the former root with the sense of â€Å"roar† or â€Å"sound† but are not descended from bulla. Bill, in all the senses pertaining to a document or other piece of paper, comes ultimately from the notion of a knoblike seal used to authenticate a document. (In the sense of a bird’s beak or an ax-shaped tool or weapon, however, the word is unrelated.) Billet, referring originally to a written statement and then by extension to the housing of soldiers in private homes, authorized by such a statement, is a diminutive of bill. (Billet-doux- literally â€Å"sweet note†- is adopted from the French term meaning â€Å"love letter.†) Bowl, and bowler (the word for a type of hat) and bowling (the term for a sport), derive from bulla, as does boll, which describes a pod of cotton produced by flowering of the cotton plant. Bollocks are testicles, and the word is British English slang for â€Å"nonsense† or a stronger retort; the spelling variant bollix is reserved for describing an act of bungling or messing up. Bolero, the word for a type of dance, comes from the extension of bulla to describe a circular motion; the name for a short jacket sometimes worn by participants in such a dance has the same origin. Bulla itself survives in medical usage to describe a bony or blistered prominence, while bull, in the sense of a papal decree, and bulletin, denoting a notice, are cognate with bill. (Bull, when referring to male cattle and, by extension, the adult male of various species, likely comes from the proto-Indo-European root from which both â€Å"blow† and â€Å"roar† are derived, though linguists disagree about which sense inspired the word.) Bullet, meanwhile, betrays that projectiles fired by guns were originally ball shaped. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comparative Forms of AdjectivesWhat is the Difference Between Metaphor and Simile?Sit vs. Set