The Song Of Roland

W. S. Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and grew up in UnionCity, New Jersey, and in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From 1949 to 1951 heworked as a tutor in France, Portugal, and Majorca. He has since lived inmany parts of the world, most recently on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.His many books of poems, prose, and translations are listed at thebeginning of this volume. He has been the recipient of many awards andprizes, including the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (ofwhich he is now a Chancellor), the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and theBollingen Prize in Poetry; most recently he has received the Governor'sAward for Literature of the state of Hawaii, the Tanning Prize for mastery inthe art of poetry, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, and theRuth Lilly Poetry Prize.