Life
Hass is a California poet whose works are well-known for their West Coast subject and attitude. He was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Rafael. He grew up with an alcoholic mother, a major topic in the 1996 poem collection, Sun Under Wood. It was his older brother who encouraged him to dedicate himself to his writing. Awe-struck by Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg, among others in the 1950s Bay Area poetry scene, Hass entertained the idea of becoming a beatnik. He graduated from Marin Catholic High School in 1958. When the area became influenced by East Asian literary techniques, such as haiku, Hass took many of these influences up in his poetry. He has been hailed as "a lyrical virtuoso who is able to turn even cooking recipes into poetry".
Hass is married to the poet and antiwar activist Brenda Hillman, who is also a professor at Saint Mary's College of California.
Read more about this topic: Robert Hass
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“What is the life of man! Is it not to shift from side to side?—from sorrow to sorrow?—to button up one cause of vexation!—and unbutton another!”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“What life have you if you have not life together?
There is no life that is not in community,”
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“The wind sprang up at four o’clock
The wind sprang up and broke the bells
Swinging between life and death”
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