Annal:2006 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Bobbitt National Prize in the year 2006. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Present Company: Poems
- 2006 Bobbitt Prize winner
- Score: 10.56
In this new masterwork from one of America’s foremost poets, W.S. Merwin guides his readers to universal themes through worldly specifics. Akin to Neruda’s Elemental Odes, every poem in Present Company directly addresses the people and things of daily life, as in “To the Thief at the Airport” or “To Lingering Regrets.”
These poems to the world are playful, deadly serious, and full of wonder. Whether writing of an unused vehicle in “To Zbigniew Herbert’s Bicycle” or watching fireworks from a distance in “To the Coming Winter,” Merwin’s poems create a rare and compelling intimacy. There is no one writing today like W.S. Merwin.
