Dave Smith

Dave Smith 1942-, American poet, b. Portsmouth, Va. His early poetry established him as a sensitive observer of human behavior. His verse is often rooted in his native South and has been praised for its formal elegance. His major collections include Cumberland Station (1976), Goshawk, Antelope (1979), The Roadhouse Voices (1985), Cuba Night (1989), Fate's Kite: Poems, 1991-1995 (1995), The Wick of Memory: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000 (2000), and Little Boats, Unsalvaged: Poems, 1992-2004 (2005). He has also written the novel Onliness (1981) and has edited several poetry anthologies.

Bibliography: See study ed. by B. Weigl (1982).

Smith, Dave [David Jeddie] (1942– ),poet born in Portsmouth, Va., and educated at the University of Virginia. He served four years in the Air Force and then began an academic‐based literary career. He founded a poetry magazine, Back Door, in 1969. His early collections of poems, Mean Rufus Throw Down (1973), The Fisherman's Whore (1974), and Drunks (1975), are all close to bedrock elemental experiences. Goshawk,Antelope (1970) placed Smith in the first line of American poets. Dream Flights and Onliness, both 1981, reveal other talents, the latter being a novelistic allegory. In the House of the Judge (1983) explores connections between personal and formal history, as does The Roundhouse Voices: Selected and New Poems (1985). Cuba Night (1989) displays stylistic experimentation.