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Olivia Cremen
Robert Duncan, an inspirational beat poet who mainly wrote about nature. Robert Duncan was born on January 7, 1919 in Oakland, California. He was adopted in 1920 by Edwin and Minnehaha Symmes. Duncan had a nice childhood, even though he was adopted ("Robert Duncan"). He went to college at the University of California, Berkley, but then he left for New York where he joined a literary circle with Henry Miller and Anais Nin. While he was at Berkley he began to publish his poems. In 1941, Duncan was deported into the U.S. army. Until 1944, Robert Duncan was not a well known poet, but in 1944 he published his first controversial issue, "The Homosexual in Society" (Davidson, Michael). He was close to this topic because at this time because he was gay. In 1943 though he married Marjorie McKee then divorced several months later after Marjorie had an abortion. In 1951 though, he met his life-long wife, Jess Collins. It took his poems a couple of years for his poems and himself to become well known (Robert Duncan's Life and Career).

In the 1960s is when his poetry career his poetry career soared. With his first collections being //Roots and Branches// (1964), //The Opening of the Field// (1960), and //Bending the Bow// (1968) (Christensen, Paul). Most of his poems had a nature theme in theme and some had a long poem set up (Maynard, James L.). His poems were also based on his childhood (Poetry Foundation). In 1961 he received the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, the Levinson Prize from the //Poetry// magazine (1964), a Guggenheim Fellowship Award (1963), and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. he received the National Poetry Award in 1985 too. After publishing //Bending the Bow// he vowed to stop publishing his work for fifteen years. Unfortunately, after suffering from dialysis treatments and kidney disease, Robert Duncan died on February 3, 1988 (Christensen, Paul).

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Passage ﻿Over Water

We have gone out in boats upon the sea at night, lost, and the vast waters close traps of fear about us. The boats are driven apart, and we are alone at last under the incalculable sky, listless, diseased with stars.

Let the oars be idle, my love, and forget at this time our love like a knife between us defining the boundaries that we can never cross nor destroy as we drift into the heart of our dream, cutting the silence, slyly, the bitter rain in our mouths and the dark wound closed in behind us.

Forget depth-bombs, death and promises we made, gardens laid waste, and, over the wastelands westward, <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">the rooms where we had come together bombd.

<span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">But even as we leave, your love turns back. I feel <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">your absence like the ringing of bells silenced. And salt <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">over your eyes and the scales of salt between us. Now, <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">you pass with ease into the destructive world. <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There is a dry crash of cement. The light fails, <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">falls into the ruins of cities upon the distant shore <span style="color: #37aff1; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">and within the indestructible night I am alone.

<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">﻿Literary Criticism <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This poem is about people on a boat and they are lost out at sea. The boats are separated and the people were all alone under the night sky. A man let the oars be still while him and a lady were in the boat alone. They broke up... then the narrator starts to talk about death to the woman in the boat. Even after they left each other they still loved one another. He really misses her and the woman is crying. The world is destructive and nothing is perfect. he comes back to shore and the sun is behind the clouds, so it is very dark and dreary. The man is sad about loosing the woman. The main theme for this poem is, "never stop loving something or soemone once they are gone."

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Works Cited <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Davidson, Michael. "Robert (Edward) Duncan." //The Beats: Literary Bohemians in ostwar America//. Ed. Ann Charters. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Dictionary of Literary <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Biography Vol. 16. //Literature Rescorce Center//. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Christensen, Paul. "Robert Duncan's Life and Career." //Modern American Poetry//. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Maynard, James L. "//Passages//." In Kimmelman, Burt, and Temple Cone, eds. //The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry//, Vol. 2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">2007. //Bloom's Literary Reference Online//. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Robert Duncan." //Contemporary Authors Online//. Detroit: Gale, 2007. //Gale Biography In Context//. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Robert Duncan." //Poetry Foundation//. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2011. [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"Robert Duncan." //The Beat generation: A Gale Critical Companion//. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Vol. 2. New York: Thomson Gale, 2003. Print.