Witter Bynner

Witter Bynner , 1881-1968, American poet, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Harvard, 1902. As a poet Bynner had a remarkable facility for catching the cadences of other writers and cultures. Under the pseudonym Emanuel Morgan he collaborated with Arthur Davidson Ficke in writing Spectra (1917), a book parodying contemporary poetic vogues such as imagism; Spectra was for a time considered a serious work (see literary frauds ). With Dr. Kaing Kung-Ho, Bynner translated 300 Chinese poems published in The Jade Mountain (1929). His other works include several plays and essays; a reminiscence of D. H. Lawrence, Journey with Genius (1951); and such volumes of poetry as Grenstone Poems (1917), Indian Earth (1929), Selected Poems (1943), Take Away the Darkness (1947), and New Poems (1960).

Bynner, [Harold] Witter (1881–1968), graduated from Harvard (1902), of which he wrote in An Ode to Harvard (1907), revised as Young Harvard (1925). He developed a melodious lyric style in such books as the Grenstone Poems (1917) and A Canticle of Pan (1920), and his Indian Earth (1929) and translation with Dr. Kiang Kang‐hu of Chinese poetry, The Jade Mountain (1929), show a change toward a simplicity similar to Imagism. He published A Book of Plays (1922), and under the pseudonym Emanuel Morgan contributed to the hoax Spectra (1916). Against the Cold (1940), satirical poems; Take Away the Darkness (1947); and A Book of Lyrics (1956) are later collections. He also wrote The Way of Life According to Laotzu (1944) and Journey with Genius (1951), his recollections of D.H. Lawrence. Richard Wilbur edited Bynner's Selected Poems (1978).