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ElliottBlackwe3: I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy! - Louise Bogan (art by Nancy Lane)

poemtoday: Two poems by Louise Bogan ...

notnotafemcel: i cannot stop making playlists based on louise bogan poems it's like an addiction

IrishAmericaMus: Louise Bogan, whose father was of Irish origin, was a well-known poetry critic & poet, developing a style that was completely modern while constructing her poetry in a traditional way. She was the 1st woman appointed the 4th Poet Laureate in 1945.

AdamGussow: Yikes. This is a whole lot closer to Louise Bogan's "Shave 'em Dry" than I realized contemporary pop culture was getting. (My son just called out from his room, "Everybody in school is listening to that, dad.") Please don't kill the messenger. 1.1M views.

DeepLevelLove: There was so much to love, I could not love it all; I could not love it enough. —Louise Bogan

BaltimoreParade: 4 Feb 1970: Louise Bogan died, New York City. She was the first woman to be appointed United States Poet Laureate.

utkfan7: Louise Bogan's "The Alchemist" is 71 words and every one is flawless. I burned my life, that I might find A passion wholly of the mind, Thought divorced from eye and bone, Ecstasy come to breath alone. I broke my life, to seek relief From the flawed light of love and grief

poemakontsa: I was just browsing through a copy of the Library of America volume 2 of 20th c. American poetry, which starts with e. e. cummings and moves to Hart Crane, Louise Bogan, Lorine Niedecker et al. Beautiful volume. But what I loved about it: the Gershwins and Bessie Smith are in it

poemakontsa: Poets on my timeline today: Linda Pastan, Virginia Hamilton Adair, Louise Bogan, Alda Merini. Dig in. Explore. Cause the new algorithm won't do that for ya

poemakontsa: Louise Bogan, we are either keel or we are reef. Zone We have struck the regions wherein we are keel or reef. The wind breaks over us, And against high sharp angles almost split into words, And these are of fear or grief. Like a ship, we have struck expected latitudes

poemakontsa: Good morning to you, the winter swans. Winter Swan Louise Bogan Where lies the leaf-caught world once thought abiding, Now but a dry disarray and artifice? Here, to the ripple cut by the cold, drifts this Bird, the long throat bent back, and the eyes in hiding.

ryanaboyd: Louise Bogan - “M., Singing”

LeNoirBleu: New short poem on Strange Sundays blog. "Knowledge" by Louise Bogan.

Jeremy_boypoet: Man Alone by Louise Bogan

michaelscaines: We have all been forced to learn how to write prose clearly, forcefully, and without fanciful and baroque curves, because we have written for an audience.. H. James *earned* his later style.. He knew how to write simply too. – Louise Bogan, Dec 15 1940

Bobbole4Bobbole: I burned my life, that I might find A passion wholly of the mind, Thought divorced from eye and bone, Ecstasy come to breath alone. I broke my life, to seek relief From the flawed light of love and grief. Louise Bogan - The Alchemist

djcontraption: He cuts what holds his days together And shuts him in, as lock on lock: The arrowed vane announcing weather, The tripping racket of a clock; Seeking, I think, a light that waits Still as a lamp upon a shelf,— A land with hills. . . fr—A Tale Louise Bogan

LarryRosenwald: "Where something dreadful and another/ Look quietly upon each other" - Louise Bogan, the haunting last couplet of this morning's Academic of American Poets poem. Haunting if anything ever was.

litwindowpane: On beauty with a rusted mouth,— Where something dreadful and another Look quietly upon each other. —Louise Bogan A Tale

HarthouseJames: "A Tale" by Louise Bogan A Bogan poem both delightful in its rhyme and meter and mysterious in its meaning.

deannamascle: A Tale by Louise Bogan - Poems | Academy of American Poets

BuffyAntiqua: Louise Bogan "Medusa" (1923) I had come to the house, in a cave of trees, Facing a sheer sky. Everything moved,—a bell hung ready to strike, Sun and reflection wheeled by. When the bare eyes were before me And the hissing hair, Held up at a window,

BuffyAntiqua: Louise Bogan "Medusa" (1923) I had come to the house, in a cave of trees, Facing a sheer sky. Everything moved,—a bell hung ready to strike, Sun and reflection wheeled by. When the bare eyes were before me And the hissing hair, Held up at a window, seen through a door.

LAHMCCABE: May Sarton showing her Louise Bogan influence.

greydate_: "In your narrowing dark hours That more things move Than blood in the heart." Louise Bogan (from “Night”)

Boiarski: Congrats, I wrote my first poems as assignments. Cherish is creativity, to quote Louise Bogan, "Poetry is not just a way of saying things, it's also a way of seeing things." Congrats to both.

opheliasings: "Song, likes a wing, tears through my breast, my side, And madness chooses out my voice again.'' ~ Louise Bogan, from "Cassandra"

isidro_li: I burned my life, that I might find A passion wholly of the mind, Thought divorced from eye and bone, Ecstasy come to breath alone. I broke my life, to seek relief From the flawed light of love and grief. — Louise Bogan

travel2now: “The Initial Mystery that attends any journey is: how did the traveler reach his starting point in the first place?” ― Louise Bogan, Journey Around My Room: The Autobiography of Louise Bogan

triohousepress: Trio is proud to share that Kimberly Blaeser is the Louise Bogan Award Judge for 2023. For more information about our judges, our reading period, our books, and our poets, please visit

Yellworque: Found a good one rooting around trying to source this. Louise Bogan on FW: ‘Life is too short to read all the glosses which have already multiplied around it and will continue to multiply.’ That was in 1939!

grant_yoon: if i call louise bogan a femcel will people on tiktok start reading her

michaelscaines: This sultry, sullen Indian summer weather isn’t helping.. It condenses and reflects too many sultry (and sullen) feelings in my own breast! O dangerous age of 49! O thoughts like dahlias and all late, coarse summer flowers, linger on till frost! – Louise Bogan, Oct 7 1946

thegreatkellino: See also, Louise Bogan, John Wain, &c &c

closetprofessor: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" -Louise Bogan

SophieHigginsH1: Sophies Philosophical Corner I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering: surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy! Louise Bogan, Homage to The Artist Way

Soli_GM: Leave-taking by Louise Bogan "Whether we turn to the dark or to the kiss of another; Let us know this for leave-taking, That I may not be heavy upon you, That you may blind me no more"

triohousepress: Congratulations to Louise Bogan Award Winner States of Arousal by Sunshine O'Donell

consertum: Within the month Black fruit breaks from white flower. The black-wheeled berries turn Weighing the boughs over the road. There is no harvest. Louise Bogan / Elders 1

DougStorm4: Louise Bogan - an extremely negative critic of female poets (esp. Muriel Rukeyser) - asserted in 1970 that Abbie Huston Evans was "the most neglected poet of the last 15 years" and that her 1961 book, The Crystal Fact, "was in every way a remarkable achievement." Who?

neglectedbooks: From the Neglected Books archive: Journey Around My Room: The Autobiography of Louise Bogan – A Mosaic by Ruth Limmer (1980)

MelanieJaxn: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" ~ Louise Bogan

triohousepress: Congratulations to Louise Bogan award winners!

interrolang: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" --Louise Bogan, American poet

KyleLibrary: The Alchemist by Louise Bogan | Poetry Foundation

JohnMcDonald15: Louise Bogan (1897-1970) I didn't know much about her until I checked out her collection of poems, "The Blue Estuaries" back in the '80's. I had heard her name before, but never looked into her work. I found it really fascinating and unique.

Book_Addict: Happy birthday to poet Louise Bogan (August 11,1897), author of "Dark Summer" (1929) and other works.

ingo_don: — Louise Bogan (Livermore Falls 11/8/1897 - 4/2/1970 NYC) us-am. poet & literary critic. Her subtle & sober style was partly infl. by writers such as Rilke & H. James, & partly by English metaphysical poets. In 1945 she was named the 4. poet laureate of the Libr. of Congr. —

ingo_don: — Louise Bogan (11/8/1897 - 4/2/1970) "Epitaph for a Romantic Woman She has attained the permanence She dreamed of, where old stones lie sunning. Untended stalks blow over her Even and swift, like young men running. … —

museical: Be mad—only do not let talk Wear the bloom from silence. And go away without fire or lantern. Let there be some uncertainty about your departure. — Louise Bogan

SCRC_at_SIUC: Longtime New Yorker poetry editor and 4th U.S. poet laureate Louise Bogan was born 125 years ago today. "The nearer one gets to eternity, the more fascinating all this breathing becomes." From the Kay Boyle Papers.

pauljimerson: It’s the birthday of poet Louise Bogan, born in Livermore Falls, Maine (1897). Her father worked in mills, and the family moved often, to what she called “the incredibly ugly mill towns of my childhood, barely dissociated from the empty, haphazardly cultivated, half-wild,

JJ56123: "Stupidity always accompanies evil. Or evil, stupidity." “At midnight tears Run into your ears.” Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970)American poet.She was appointed the 4th Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title.

ModernLibrary: Louise Bogan, born August 11, 1897. Now that I know That passion warms little Of flesh in the mold, And treasure is brittle, I’ll lie here and learn How, over their ground, Trees make a long shadow And a light sound.

cowboycoleridge: Now that I have your face by heart, I look Less at its features than its darkening frame - Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: Your work is carved out of agony as a statue is carved out of marble. - Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: The dark is thrown Back from the brightness, like hair Cast over a shoulder. I am alone - Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: Well! Such goings-on! A woman of my age! […] I hope that one or two immortal lyrics will come out of all this tumbling about. Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: "I have lost faith in universal panaceas--work is the one thing in which I really believe." Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: And I have life—that old reason To wait for what comes, To leave what is over. Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: You have been dead a long season And have less than desire Who were lover with lover Louise Bogan

cowboycoleridge: The Lovers' Chronicle 11 August - fallen, verse by mac tag - verse by Louise Bogan

NathanFrancis__: Poems:

BaltimoreParade: 11 Aug 1897: Louise Bogan (Irish roots) born, Livermore Falls, Maine. In 1945, she was the first woman to become US Poet Laureate. The New Yorker's poetry editor for nearly 40 years greatly influenced the direction of 20th century American poetry.

KLNenstiel: August 11th, 1897, is the birthday of former U.S. Poet Laureate Louise Bogan, who once wrote: “The Initial Mystery that attends any journey is: how did the traveler reach his starting point in the first place?”

ARTSalamode: Born 8/11: painter Claude Joseph Vernet, writers Louise Bogan, Hugh MacDiarmid, Alex Haley, Angus Wilson, Carl Rowan, Enid Blyton, Charlotte Yonge, Mavis Gallant, Andre Dubus, jazz organ Bill Heid, jazz sax Donny McCaslin, singer/songwriter Eric Carmen.

ARTSalamode: “O remember In your narrowing dark hours That more things move Than blood in the heart.” Louise Bogan

DavBatz: Good Morning! On this day, (Thursday) August 11 in 1897 Louise Bogan was born. She was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. She was the poetry reviewer for The New Yorker.

lauren_trip617: I have remembered you. You were not the town visited once, Nor the road falling behind running feet. You were as awkward as flesh And lighter than frost or ashes. You were the rind, And the white-juiced apple, The song, and the words waiting for music. —Louise Bogan

LFMEorg: Today is Louise Bogan's 125th birthday. Louise Bogan was an American poet, born in Livermore Falls. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and became the regular poetry reviewer for The New Yorker.

JA_Redmond: Because I found it in an old notebook yesterday: a favorite poem, "The Crossed Apple" by Louise Bogan.

PoetNotRockStar: “The kisses not for our mouths,—light the dark summer.” — Louise Bogan

OriginalOldSuit: "I have remembered you. You were not the town visited once, Nor the road falling behind running feet. You were as awkward as flesh And lighter than frost or ashes. You were the rind, And the white-juiced apple, The song, and the words waiting for music." ~Louise Bogan

triohousepress: Congratulations to the Louise Bogan Winners!!

Boiarski: The poem is always the last resort": Louise Bogan's essential short essay, "The Springs of Poetry." Good stuff.

triohousepress: Congratulations to the Louise Bogan Winners!!

LFMEorg: Louise Bogan (8/11/1897-2/4/1970) was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. She wrote poetry, fiction, and criticism, and became the regular poetry reviewer for The New Yorker.

PeterVertacnik: Thanks to the God of the Library Discards (and its apparent powers of extreme depreciation), even poor poets like me can possess the occasional first edition (in this case Louise Bogan's Dark Summer).

DestinyDiMattei: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" -Louise Bogan

neglectedbooks: Another favorite: What the Woman Lived, Selected Letters of Louise Bogan Three short letters from the time of her mother's death:

DestinyDiMattei: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" -Louise Bogan

cesar2mac: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" Louise Bogan

LettersOfNote: "I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!" —Louise Bogan to John Wheelock, 5 Sep 1953

DanLydia22: My mouth perhaps may learn one thing too well My body hear no echo save its own Yet will the desperate mind, maddened & proud Seek out the storm, escape the bitter spell That we obey, strain to the wind be thrown Straight to its freedom in the thunderous cloud.  - Louise Bogan ☕️

postoff25: I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy! LOUISE BOGAN

gwynnega: Sanchez mentioned during the Q&A that she studied with Louise Bogan, an amazing poetic connection I was delighted to learn about.

OriginalOldSuit: "I have remembered you. You were not the town visited once, Nor the road falling behind running feet. You were as awkward as flesh And lighter than frost or ashes. You were the rind, And the white-juiced apple, The song, and the words waiting for music." ~Louise Bogan

samuel_twain: TIL Louise Bogan reviewed Finnegans Wake for The Nation

Vagstas: Louise Bogan, The Blue Estuaries

Wesson_III9: Louise Bogan... Her poetry is like the sea at night, deep and inclusive...

ForgottenGPoems: Have spent extra time with Louise Bogan's work recently. (She remains a favorite, poems & prose.) Here's an uncollected poem of hers from the appendix of Mary Kinzie's omnibus, A Poet's Prose: Selected Writings of Louise Bogan (2005). We need a true Complete Poems for Bogan.

johnstonglenn: Edmund Wilson wrote a letter signed "Jails Juice" to poet Louise Bogan.

johnstonglenn: Poet Louise Bogan reviewed Finnegans Wake for the May 6 1939 issue of The Nation. She cited its musicality and "mark of genius," but said "To read the book over a long period of time gives one the impression of watching intemperance become addiction, become debauch."

TomSnarsky: It sings of constant love. Heine, via Louise Bogan

ErickJo99852568: [DOWNLOAD]- Louise Bogan: A Portrait

triohousepress: Day 18 of National Poetry Month! Trio House Press is accepting submissions until April 30th!! Submit to the Louise Bogan Award today! For more information, visit

CHIGIAJU: “solitary observation brought back from a sojourn in hell” by louise bogan daily edition

SeanSingerPoet: Louise Bogan: It’s silly to suggest the writing of poetry as something ethereal, a sort of soul-crashing emotional experience that wrings you. I have no fancy ideas about poetry. It doesn’t come to you on the wings of a dove. It’s something you work hard at.

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