Ciardi, << chee AHR dee, >> John (1916-1986), was an American poet. Unlike the work of many modern poets, Ciardi’s poetry usually is not difficult or surprising. Critics have praised his verse for its musical grace and ease. According to Ciardi, style should serve the purposes of the subject rather than express the individuality of the writer. Critics sometimes accused him of sentimentality, but he achieved the highest excellence in many of his poems and in his translations of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Inferno, 1954; Purgatorio, 1961; Paradiso, 1970). Collections of Ciardi’s poetry appear in As If: Poems New and Selected (1955) and For Instance (1979).
John Anthony Ciardi was born on June 24, 1916, in Boston. He taught at Harvard University from 1946 to 1953, and at Rutgers University from 1953 to 1961. He served as poetry editor for Saturday Review from 1956 to 1977. Ciardi wrote several books of poetry for children, including I Met a Man (1971) and Fast and Slow: Poems for Advanced Children and Beginning Parents (1975). He also wrote How Does a Poem Mean? (1960), a critical introduction to the study of poetry at the college level. Ciardi died on March 30, 1986.
