'A yardstick for the language'

 “Everyindividual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as aguide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.”– Joseph Brodsky

Born in Leningrad on this date in1940, Brodsky started writing at age 15.  Published by the underground journal Sintakss (Syntax)before he was out of high school, his early works got him in deep trouble asbeing “anti-Soviet” and by his late 20s the Soviet government had him “confined” to a mentalinstitution and then expelled from his homeland. 

 

Then, thanks to the help of poetW.H. Auden, he came to live in the United States where he had a long andeventful writing career leading, ultimately, to being named for the Nobel Prize.

 

Besides writing, he taught poetry and creative writing at Yale, Columbia and Michigan beforebecoming a full-time faculty member at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusettswhere he taught until his death in 1996.

 

 His 1987 Nobel Prize inLiterature was awarded "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued withclarity of thought and poetic intensity.”  In 1991, he was appointed United States Poet Laureate, the firstnaturalized citizen to be so honored.  America, he said, was a breath of fresh airthat renewed his spirit and belief in his fellow human beings.

 

“Cherish your human connections: yourrelationships with friends and family,” he advised.  “Know how delightful it is to find a friend ineveryone you meet.” 

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