The Poet’s View is a unique film series presenting intimate portraits of five prominent American poets. Filmed on location in Hawaii, Paris, New York, and California, The Poet's View takes viewers inside the homes and lives of our era's foremost poetic talents as they reminisce about their formative years, reveal their poetic processes, and read some of their best-known works. Unprecedented access takes the viewer beyond the public faces of these celebrated poets, as we hear John Ashbery discuss the early days of the New York School, Poet Laureate Kay Ryan muse on her working-class origins, Anthony Hecht vividly relate his experience freeing the prisoners of Buchenwald, W. S. Merwin recount his odd mentoring by Ezra Pound, and Louise Glück describe the painstaking “miracle” of creating a poem.

About the poets:
• John Ashbery’s first book was chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series, and he has since gone on to win nearly every major American award for poetry.
• Louise Glück is a former United States Poet Laureate, and has received the Pulitzer Prize and the New Yorker's book award in poetry.
• Anthony Hecht is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the Wallace Stevens lifetime achievement award from the Academy of American Poets.
• Kay Ryan is a former United States Poet Laureate. Her honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and publication in The Best of the Best American Poetry.
• W. S. Merwin is a former Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, and has received a Pulitzer Prize and the Bollingen Prize.


A supplemental Poet's View DVD is available about poet C. K. Williams.

*** 1/2. Sure to appeal to poetry lovers, this is highly recommended."
‒Video Librarian

"This entertaining and intelligent video is a potentially useful tool for students and teachers, but non academic fans of these writers or of poetry in general will also find it rewarding."
‒Library Journal