Stanley Burnshaw

Stanley Burnshaw (June 20, 1906 – September 16, 2005) was an American poet, primarily known for his ontology The Seamless Web. His style was particularly writing political poems, prose, editorials, etc. Aside from political poetry, Burnshaw is known for his works on social justice.

Family life

Raised by his parents, who immigrated from England, Stanley Burnshaw was born and brought up in New York City. There are few detailed depictions of his childhood, but in his later years Burnshaw wrote two poems giving light on that time period of his life. The first was a poem entitled "My Friend, My Father" which was about his childhood from the viewpoint of his father, and the second about his mother entitled "House in St. Petersburg". Burnshaw married Susan Copen Oken. Burnshaw had daughter, Valeri Razavi, and later became the grandparents to one grandson.

Education

Burnshaw began his secondary education at the University of Pittsburgh, transferred to Columbia University, and then transferred back to the University of Pittsburgh again to earn his bachelor's degree. After saving up money, Burnshaw traveled to Europe in 1927 to attend the University of Poitiers and eventually Sorbonne University. Then in 1928, he returned to New York to attend graduate school at New York University and earned his Master's degree.

Career

Burnshaw made a career plan to become a teacher and a writer. To save money and get started in his future career, Burnshaw started working at the Blaw-Knox Steel Corporation in Blawnox, Pennsylvania as an assistant copywriter. After he returned from Europe, Burnshaw began working at the Hecht Company in New York City as an advertising manager. Resigning from the Hecht Company in 1932, his next job was doing multiple duties (co-editor, drama critic, and occasional book reviewer) for The New Masses, a weekly editorial in New York City. In the 1930s Burnshaw got more interested in publishing. He first became the editor-in-chief for the Cordon Company in New York, then president and editor-in-chief of the Dryden Press (a firm he started) which merged with Holt, Rinehart and Winston in the late 1950s. Until 1968 Burnshaw was a consultant to the house and vice-president of Dryden Press. He published many prose, poems, books, editorials, and remained active in many other aspects of his career until his death in September 2005.

Works Early and Late Testament (1952) Early and Late Testament Time of Brightness Bread The Iron Lands Do I Know Their Names? For a Workers' Road-Song All Day the Chill... Will You Remake These Worlds? A Coil of Glass Anchorage in Time This War Is Love Hero Statues Dialogue of the Heartbeat The Bridge Heartbeat Obbligato End of the Flower-World Looking for Papa Among Trees of Light Coasts of Darkness In Strength of Singleness Blood It Was Never This Quiet... When Was It Lost? Woodpecker Voices in Dearness... Song Aspires to Silence Anchorage in Time Two Men Fell in the Irish Sea Poetry: The Art Odes and Lyrics To a Young Girl Sleeping Innocence Wave Event in a Field The Fear Light Outlives All Shape Midnight: Deserted Pavements Random Pieces of a Man Waiting in Winter Outcast of the Waters Restful Ground Days Driving Song Willowy Wind The Hollow River Anonymous Alba: En un vergier soiz folha d'albespi Orléans: Le temps a laissié... Spire: Nudités Spire: Ce n'est pas toi... Spire: Nativité Spire: Un parfum éternel... Spire: Baisers Spire: Friselis Spire: Volupté Caged in an Animal's Mind (1963) Thoughts about a Garden Historical Song of Then and Now Summer Ravel and Bind Caged in an Animal's Mind Ancient of Nights Symbol Curse The Valley Between Thoughts about a Garden Petitioner Dogs Father-Stones Night of the Canyon Sun A Recurring Vision Midnight Wind to the Tossed The Axe of Eden Listen: Random Pieces of a Man 8Thoughts of the War and My Daughter A River Surface Preparation for Self-Portrait in Black Stone Mornings of St. Croix Boy over a Stream Letter from One Who Could Not Cross the Frontier Voyage: Journal Entry Nightmare in a Workshop Seven Clay A Rose Song Guide's Speech on a Road near Delphi Song of Nothings: In the Mountain's Shadow at Delphi I Think among Blank Walls Seedling Air Three in Throes Modes of Belief House in St. Petersburg Time Is a Double Line Akhmatova: The Muse George: Denk nicht zu viel... Éluard: L'Amoureuse Von Hofmannsthal: Eigene Sprache Alberti: El ángel bueno In the Terrified Radiance (1972) The Terrified Radiance The Terrified Radiance To a Crow Innocent War Gulls... Central Park: Midwinter The Finding Light Erstwhile Hunter Their Singing River (I) Not to Bereave... Underbreathing Song Emptiness... Procreations Women and Men Movie Poster on a Subway Wall End of a Visit The Echoing Shape Summer Morning Train to the City Women and Men Terah Isaac Talmudist What Plato Was Song of Succession En l'an... Dialogue of the Stone Other In the Coastal Cities Will of Choice Chanson Innocente The Rock Condor Festival Three Friends We Brought You Away As Before... Friend across the Ocean Wildness The Hero of Silence Dedication: An Eternity of Words Master and Pupils Soliloquy from a Window: Man and Flowers Dialogue before Waking Fume Into the Blond Torrent The Waking Second-Hand Poems Paz: Más allá del amor Spire: Retour des Martinets Alberti: Canción del ángel sin suerte Alberti: El ángel mentiroso Verhaeren: La Bêche Akhmatova: from "The White Flock" Unamuno: Me destierro... Mirages: Travel Notes in the Promised Land (1977) First Landscape Generations of Terror Blind Tale Seventh-day Mirage The Rock Talmudist Marching Song Choices Message to Someone Four Hundred Nights Away The House Hollow Argon Florida Seaside Old Enough at Last to Be Unsolemn Mind, If You Mourn at All To Wake Each Dawn Their Singing River (II) Speech, the Thinking-Miracle Man on a Greensward Social Poems of the Depression (from The New Masses and The Iron Land ) The Crane-Driver Street Song: New Style I, Jim Rogers Mr. Tubbe's Morning Service Notes on the Poems Selected Prose My Friend, My Father Stevens' "Mr. Burnshaw and the Statue" The Poem Itself: "Discussing Poems into English" Thomas Mann Translates "Tonio Kröger" A Future for Poetry: Planetary Maturity The Seamless Web Toward the "Knowable" Frost