Jun 13 2009
Mark Van Doren, poet
Mark Van Doren was born on June 13, 1894 in Vermilion County, Illinois. He taught at Columbia University from 1920-1959. He was married to Dorothy Graffe and they had one son, Charles. His son became famous for a gameshow scandal in the 1950s.
In 1940, Van Doren won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Collected Poems 1922-1938. In addition to poetry, he wrote 3 novels and several non-fiction works. His first published poem was Spring Thunder (1924) which is reprinted below.
Mark Van Doren died on December 10, 1972.
Spring Thunder
by
Mark van Doren
Listen, The wind is still,
And far away in the night –
See! The uplands fill
With a running light.
Open the doors. It is warm;
And where the sky was clear–
Look! The head of a storm
That marches here!
Come under the trembling hedge–
Fast, although you fumble…
There! Did you hear the edge
of winter crumble
