Share this page :
Kenneth Koch (27 February 1925 – 6 July 2002 / Ohio / United States)
|
 |
|
an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77. He was a prominent poet of the New York School of poetry, a loose group of poets including Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery that eschewed contemporary introspective poetry in favor of an exuberant, cosmopolitan style that drew major inspiration from travel, painting, and music.
Kenneth Koch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 27, 1925. He studied at Harvard University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, and attended Columbia University for his Ph.D.
Many critics found Koch's early work obscure, such as Poems (1953), and the epic Ko, or A Season on Earth (1959), ... more »
Click here to add this poet to your My Favorite Poets.
Popular Poems
- A Momentary Longing To Hear Sad Advice F...
- Bel Canto
- Fresh Air
- Mountain
- News
- On the Great Atlantic Rainway
- One Train May Hide Another
- Paradiso
- Poem For My Twentieth Birthday
- Talking to Patrizia
- The Boiling Water
- The Brassiere Factory
- The Circus
- The History of Jazz
Quotations
more quotations »-
''"Something there is that doesn't hump a sump,"
Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Mending Sump (l. 5-7). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d...
He said; and through his head she saw a cloud
That seemed to twinkle.''
-
''He's come to die
Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Mending Sump (l. 9-11). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2...
Or else to laugh, for hay is dried-up grass
When you're alone."''
-
One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Permanently (l. 1-4). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983)...
An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
The next day a Verb drove up, and created the ...
-
As the adjective is lost in the sentence,
Kenneth Koch (b. 1925), U.S. poet. Permanently (l. 11-15). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 198...
So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat—
You have enchanted me with a single kiss
Which can never be undone
Until t...
