16-10-2023 : On a somber note, we bid farewell to Nobel laureate Louise Gluck, a distinguished poet renowned for her unflinching candor and keen insight. She was a wordsmith who artfully wove classical allusions, philosophical contemplations, bittersweet recollections, and witty asides into timeless depictions of a world marked by loss and heartache. Gluck’s demise at the age of 80 was confirmed by her editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Jonathan Galassi. The poet succumbed to cancer at her residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a recent diagnosis that came as a surprise, according to one of her former students, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham.
Louise Gluck’s approach to both life and literature was characterized by its proximity to the core of existence. Her work spanned more than six decades, creating a narrative of trauma, disillusionment, stasis, and longing. Interspersed among these were moments—though fleeting—of ecstasy and contentment. In a significant historical moment, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2020, becoming the first American poet to receive this prestigious accolade since T.S. Eliot in 1948. The Nobel committee commended her distinctive poetic voice, which, with austere beauty, universalized individual existence.
Gluck’s poetry was frequently concise, often spanning just a single page. Her brevity was an embodiment of her attachment to the unspoken, to insinuation, and to purposeful and eloquent silence. She was deeply influenced by diverse sources, including Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and Eliot. Her work scrutinized and at times discarded the very foundations of love and intimacy, what she once referred to as the “premise of union” in her renowned poem, “Mock Orange.” She viewed life as a troubled romance, foretold to end unhappily, yet meaningful because pain was considered the natural state of humanity, and preferable to an uncertain future.
Gluck believed in the endurance of poetry, in its potential to outlive the lives of those who create it. In her poem “Summer,” she contemplated the shifting seasons of existence and the deepening isolation that can occur within relationships. Yet, this was not a subject frequently discussed, an absence of regret or spoken words.
Influential poets like Tracy K. Smith, a Pulitzer Prize winner, paid tribute to Gluck by stating that her poetry had been a source of solace during trying times. Smith cited lines from Gluck’s work, “The Wild Iris,” which epitomize a path through the burdens of life and offer a sense of hope. It is as though Gluck’s measured and patient syntax constructs a way through the complexities of living.
Louise Gluck’s extensive literary portfolio encompassed over a dozen volumes of poetry, along with essays and a concise prose fable titled “Marigold and Rose.” Her inspirations ranged from the weaving of Penelope in “The Odyssey” to the unlikely source of the Meadowlands sports complex, which piqued her curiosity, leading to questions such as, “How could the Giants name that place the Meadowlands? It has about as much in common with a pasture as would the inside of an oven.”
In 1993, Gluck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her collection “The Wild Iris,” a work that engaged in a dialogue between a beleaguered gardener and a seemingly indifferent deity. The gardener questions, “What is my heart to you that you must break it over and over,” to which the deity responds, “My poor inspired creation… You are too little like me in the end to please me.”
Her poetic journey included notable volumes such as “The Seven Ages,” “The Triumph of Achilles,” “Vita Nova,” and a highly acclaimed anthology titled “Poems 1962-2012.” In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Gluck received the Bollingen Prize in 2001 for her lifetime contributions to poetry and the National Book Award in 2014 for “Faithful and Virtuous Night.”
She was honored with the role of U.S. Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2004 and received a National Humanities Medal in 2015 for her decades-long dedication to lyrical poetry that defied categorization.
In her lifetime, Louise Gluck was married and divorced twice and had a son, Noah, with her second husband, John Darnow. She imparted her knowledge and passion for poetry at several academic institutions, including Stanford University and Yale University. Her experiences in the classroom were not regarded as a distraction from her craft, but rather as a prescription for rejuvenation.
Students remembered her as a demanding and inspiring teacher who was unafraid to challenge them and guide them towards finding their unique voices. Claudia Rankine, a poet who studied under Gluck at Williams College, noted that Louise had the ability to pinpoint the one line in a poem that truly worked, avoiding niceties and false praise. When Louise spoke, her words carried a weight of authenticity and a refusal to hide within the boundaries of civility.
Louise Gluck, a native of New York City who grew up on Long Island, came from a lineage of Eastern European Jews. Her father’s legacy included co-inventing the X-Acto knife, a contribution outside the usual purview of poetry. Her mother was her moral compass and the primary evaluator of her stories and poems. Born in a family of three sisters, she seemed to allude to a family tragedy in her poem “Parados.”
Louise Gluck’s life was marked by significant challenges, including her struggle with anorexia, which resulted in her weight plummeting to a mere 75 pounds. This experience was a relentless confrontation with mortality, and she acknowledged the pivotal role of psychoanalysis in her recovery. Analysis, she explained, taught her how to think and challenge her own ideas, emphasizing the importance of doubt and introspection. Her encounters with psychoanalysis fundamentally influenced her writing.
Louise Gluck discovered her love for poetry and found mentors in the poets-teachers Leonie Adams and Stanley Kunitz while sitting in on classes at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. Her passion for poetry and her gift for language fueled her ambition to create meaningful art.