Last week came news (see The Washington Post’s obituary) of the passing of Alan Dugan, whose seven books of poems were all entitled simply Poems. His first book won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Prix de Rome and at his death, The New York Times called him “barbed poet of daily life’s profundities.”

He was known as a poet of World War II, an “ironic and unsentimental” writer, a technical virtuoso whose work used all the varieties of contemporary vernacular & was often funny, focused on the details of quotidian life but always aware of death & metaphysics under the surface. To read and listen to his poems, try the Alan Dugan links in our library of 20th century poets.

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