康拉特·爱肯诗3首
Aiken was educated at private schools and at Harvard University, where he was a friend and contemporary of T.S. Eliot (whose poetry was to influence his own). A tutor in English at Harvard in the late 1920s and a London correspondent for The New Yorker in the mid-1930s, he divided his life almost equally between England and the United States until 1947, when he settled in Massachusetts. Aiken was instrumental as editor of Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson (1924) in establishing that poet’s posthumous reputation, and he played a significant role in introducing the work of American poets to the British public.
After three early collections of verse, Aiken wrote five “symphonies” between 1915 and 1920 in an effort to create poetry that would resemble music in its ability to express several levels of meaning simultaneously. Then came a period of narrative poems, several volumes of lyrics and meditations, and, after World War II, a return to musical form but with richer philosophical and psychological overtones. The best of his poetry is contained in Selected Poems (1929), which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1930, and Collected Poems (1953), including a long sequence “Preludes to Definition,” which some critics consider his masterwork, and the often anthologized “Morning Song of Senlin.” Aiken served as the poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (now poet laureate consultant in poetry) from 1950 to ’52.
康拉德·艾肯(Conrad Aiken)1889年出生于美国乔治亚州。年幼时，家中就发生了父亲杀害母亲、然后举枪自尽的人伦惨剧。这对艾肯以后的成长无疑具有十分深远的影响。父母双亡后，艾肯迁居新英格兰的马萨诸塞州，由曾祖母抚养长大。1912年，与艾略特、卡明斯同时从哈佛大学毕业。大学期间，艾肯开始向著名的《日晷》杂志投稿，并由此结识了大诗人庞德。1914年，首部诗集《得胜的土地》出版，其诗名就此奠定。一战中，艾肯据理力争，免于从军服役。二、三十年代，遍游英伦、北美，其间三度步入婚姻殿堂。
艾肯的诗偏重心理分析与自我的探索。根据他本人的说法，弗洛伊德、威廉·詹姆斯、爱伦坡以及法国象征主义对其创作的影响最深。艾肯的诗，尤其是内省的诗，十分注重形式与音律的完美。1930年, 《艾肯诗选》获得普利策大奖。此后，他更是获奖无数。1950-52年期间，荣任美国“桂冠诗人”。艾肯也是造诣甚高的小说家与批评家。1973年卒于乔治亚州老家。
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