Josephine Jacobsen (1908 - 2003)
Monday July 14, 2003
From The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times comes news that Josephine Jacobsen, who served as Poetry Consultant to the U.S. Library of Congress (now the title is Poet Laureate) for two years in the 1970’s, died last Wednesday, July 9th at the age of 94.
Jacobsen is remembered as a poet for whom “the imagination was ‘the active, secret subterranean life’,” and in whose work “A cherishing of the world... is ever present, along with a deep sense of reckoning with death as a supreme fact” (this assessment from Alice Quinn, poetry editor of The New Yorker). She described herself as “a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist” -- both qualities evident in her letter of appreciation to William Meredith. Her humor shows in her terse answers to the Poetry Society’s questions in “What’s American About American Poetry?” It’s difficult to locate her poems online. There is an excerpt from “On Pairs” which appeared on public transit as part of Poetry in Motion and is now posted on the Poetry Society’s Web site. And the text of “You Can Take It With You” is posted in Michael Collier’s appreciation of Jacobsen, published after her death.
Jacobsen is remembered as a poet for whom “the imagination was ‘the active, secret subterranean life’,” and in whose work “A cherishing of the world... is ever present, along with a deep sense of reckoning with death as a supreme fact” (this assessment from Alice Quinn, poetry editor of The New Yorker). She described herself as “a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist” -- both qualities evident in her letter of appreciation to William Meredith. Her humor shows in her terse answers to the Poetry Society’s questions in “What’s American About American Poetry?” It’s difficult to locate her poems online. There is an excerpt from “On Pairs” which appeared on public transit as part of Poetry in Motion and is now posted on the Poetry Society’s Web site. And the text of “You Can Take It With You” is posted in Michael Collier’s appreciation of Jacobsen, published after her death.
Comments
When I heard Josephine jacobsen speak at a lecture at her beloved Roland Park Country School,I was informed about what a highly aware and creative woman’s life could be. She left a deep and abiding impression on me as a young mother, who aspired to a creative and expresive life, for myself and others, as an art psychotherapist. I was most taken by her reflectons’ on her years a the Poet Laureate at the Libraryof COngress, which she was coming home to Balitmore to teel her friends about. She used her poet laureate years to do a “life review” of all her poems and found that her entire life, with every successive ourpouring of her poetry, though she used different metaphoric images, she was always returning to the same deep and enduring themes she dealth with in her lfe. This was an amazing self-observatons for me and reinforces to this day, the idea of the importance of life review, especially by creative people. Amazing woman…….. what a gift to us all……