Not another Wright Brother
“ All my poems seem to be an ongoing argument with myself about the
unlikelihood of salvation”. Charles Wright stated this quote in his
biography called Half Life (gale group). The beautiful imagery
Wright creates in his poetry refers
back to the landscapes of Italy and the
countryside of Tennessee where he grew up as a child. Charles does not have
a system he follows when he writes his poems. He writes the poems exactly as
he hears them. Most of the poems Wright had written were an odd syllable
count. His poems deeply reflect on human concerns, truth, nature and death.
Wright got involved with poetry when he served the army. He was stationed in
Verona, Italy. When he retired from the army, he returned to the U.S. Wright
then started to attend collages to greatly improve his writing skills. A few
years later, Wright became one of the most famous and well-known poets in
America.
Charles Penzel Wright Jr. was born in Pickwick, Tennessee on August 25th 1935. He spent most of his childhood in Hardin County, Tennessee. Wright received his religious education from the Episcopal Church and stayed well involved into his adult hood. Wright went to Davidson College in 1957 and got his bachelors degree there. Charles Wright first got involved with poetry when he was stationed in Verona, Italy in 1959. He served in the army intelligence unit. When he was there he began reading the poetry by Ezra Pound and Eugenio Monte and was truly moved. When Wright was so amazed by these poems he began to experiment with his own poems and enjoyed his results. The poem that impressed Wright the most was Ezra Pound’s poem “Blandula, Tenulla, Vagula”. Upon returning to the U.S in 1961, Wright joined the University of Iowa where he then attended the writers’ workshop and earned his Masters degree in 1963. Then he spent the next year at the University of Rome as a Fulbright scholar. He later married Holly McIntire in 1969 who was a photographer. They had one son named Luke. Wright then taught at the University of California, Irvine from 1966 to 1983. He currently resides Charlottesville, Virginia and works as a full time professor at University of Virginia.
Ezra Pound
Charles Wright had won many awards. For example, his 11th
collection of poems that he published, called Chickamauga, won the
1996 Lenor Marshal Poetry prize. His book called the Black Zodiac won
the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. His book called Country Music: Selected Early
Poems won the National book Award in 1983. He is also well known for
writing a few translations. He managed to get the PEN translation prize in
1978. He translated Eugenio Montale’s book called “The Storm and other
Poems”. Charles Wright received many awards for his astonishing poems, he is
still writing poetry to this day.