Paul Smyth

Poet Paul Smyth was born in Boston and grew up in Hollister, Massachusetts. Though he left school at 16 to travel, he eventually studied at Harvard University’s extension program. His poetry collections include Native Grass (1972); Shadowed Leaves (1973); Fifty Sonnets (1973); Conversions (1974); Thistles and Thorns: Abraham and Sarah at Bethel (1977), illustrated by Barry Moser; Antibodies (1979); The Cardinal Sins: A Bestiary (1980), with illustrations by Barry Moser; and Plausible Light: New and Selected Poems (2008). His poems were included in the anthologies Ten American Poets (1973), published in Great Britain; Contemporary Religious Poetry (1987); and Vital Signs (1989).

In his poetry, Smyth tackled a range of difficult topics, including fear, a troubled childhood, and the passage of time. He used traditional forms and vivid imagery to shape his experiences and had a strong sense of musicality. The poet Richard Wilbur observed, “Paul Smyth had an easy mastery of verse forms, a vivid narrative gift, a good acquaintance with fact and natural process, and a rare capacity for confronting what is painful in life.”

His honors include the Dillon Memorial Prize from Poetry magazine and awards from the Lyric Foundation. A resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, when he died, Smyth had previously lived in New England and Greece. After his death, his brother John D’earth, a Charlottesville jazz trumpeter and composer, set a selection of his poems to music in a work titled Ephemera.