In 1983 Alfred A. Knopf published a volume of poems by a little-known poet then past sixty years old. Titled The Kingfisher, this collection was praised (on the dust jacket) by Richard Wilbur as "extraordinary," by Joel Connaroe (Washington Post Book...

Amy Clampitt, poet: born New Providence, Iowa 15 June 1920; married Harold L. Korn; died Lenox, Massachusetts 10 September 1994. THE CAMBRIDGE Poetry Festival of 1985 featured such international luminaries as John Ashbery, Seamus Heaney and Amy Clampitt, the American poet whose first...

AMY CLAMPITT'S PILGRIMAGE LIKE THE TORNADOES that occasionally rip across the flatlands of her native Iowa. Amy Clampitt seizes upon whatever in her path. No living poet writes with fiercer energy, or is able to transform the diversity of life into such...

In the excerpt below, McClatchy explores Clampitt's poetic voice, especially her use of literary allusions and the themes of death and completion.

In this essay, Morrisroe credits Clampitt's poetry with the power to turn the everyday into the magical through its powerful, evocative language.

In his review of Westward, Morrison attributes Clampitt's appeal to English readers to her attention to detail, her willingness to include the Old World and its history, and her search for emotional roots.