National Poetry Month, established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, is celebrated every April to bring awareness to poetry and poets, old and new. As with so many other aspects of the arts, many writers and poets over the years have called Newtown home. Among the scribes was Louis Untermeyer, who lived for more than 20 years on Great Hill Road, until his death at age 92, in 1977.Bygones, listed his various careers as "an aspiring composer, a manufacturing jeweler, a part-time journalist, a full-time editor, a lecturer, a teacher, a radio commentator, a television performer, and, from time to time a poet," is best known for his achievements in the literary world.First Love, his first book of poetry, was a vanity press publication. He describes it in Bygones, saying "First Love was scarcely a lucrative piece of merchandise… but I was a published poet with my name printed on catalogue cards in public libraries. I was twenty-five; I had entered the [publishers' lists] and I was one of those young men rising in America ready 'to carry on the apostolate of poesy.'" This was in reference to a comment by noted poet Edwin Markham, regarding the 1911 collection "The Younger Choir," to which Louis Untermeyer had contributed.Makers of the Modern World, a study of 92 historic innovators including Henry James, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and Stravinsky.A New Home And New FriendsSeventeen magazine.Bygones, "but we soon made new friends…"National Geographic specials and Ms March as a longtime actress on the soap opera All My Children.Bygones depicts a poet who is not only humble about his own writings, but also dismissive. It is in keeping with the man Ms Eddison recalled.Golden Treasury of Children's Literature titles.said i to myself said i "a lack of enjoyment in much of the extremism in contemporary poetry, painting, sculpture, music, etc. At the same time, I am convinced that there should be no limit whatsoever to experiment. I see nothing sacred about the status quo. I deplore those who condemn anyone who dares to disturb it… If this is so miserable a world… why do I persist in living and writing in it? Not because I believe that anything will be changed or anyone be influenced by any word I may write… I continue to love Nature (I live on what was once a Connecticut farm) and, sometimes, human nature with its incalculable surprises. What saves me from the slough of despond and keeps me going is a delight in the senses, all five of them, and first and most compelling of all, an undying (so far) curiosity." Three poems from Louis Untermeyer's collection, The Long Feud, published by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, in 1962, are examples of the varied subjects immortalized by Newtown's mid-20th Century poet.Country EveningGrace without MeatThe Wanderer

Born in New York City in 1885, the man who in his 1965 autobiography,

Among the nearly 100 books he edited or authored, as well as the many essays he wrote, Mr Untermeyer compiled more than 30 poetry anthologies, and was the author of more than a dozen books of poetry.

Mr Untermeyer is renowned for his contributions to literature and for his popularity as a lecturer, but many are unaware that Newtown's most famous poet was a self-taught man, leaving high school before graduation. In his early years of schooling, Mr Untermeyer describes himself as "educationally torpid and physically clumsy."

His struggle with prescribed education continued into his teenage years.

"At fifteen, my mind went to sleep during the routine instruction and woke only after school," Untermeyer wrote. It was geometry that finally drove the future Poetry Society of America Gold Medal winner (1956) to leave school for good. "Knowing I could not 'work it out,' I left the classroom and never returned to it."

Fortunately, he had discovered a world of learning through his library card and the tomes he devoured from the Aguilar Free Library in New York City. Dumas, Dickens, and Hugo were among the authors he consumed. Coupled with his very active imagination, his early introduction to poetry (his mother read poems of Longfellow to him as a child, and an abundance of classics in rhyme, illustrated by Gustave Doré, were coffee table books in the family apartment), and a keen interest in storytelling, it is no wonder that he found his way into the circle of notable wordsmiths.

Even in his early years of making his living outside of poetry and editing, Mr Untermeyer was immersed in the literary scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ezra Pound, and becoming a lifelong friend of New England poet Robert Frost.

As varied as his interest in the arts was his personal life. He was an original cast member of the CBS "What's My Line?" show, his only venture into television and an experience that nearly ruined him. Accused of Communist connections during the McCarthy era of persecution of anyone not of the extreme right, he was fired from the show after just one year. However, he eventually turned his despair into productivity. Although smeared as one of the "soft headed do-gooders" and a "pinko" according to his autobiography, the experience propelled him into writing

By this time he and his fifth wife, Bryna Ivens, had taken possession of a home on Great Hill Road in Newtown, where they initially lived just on weekends, commuting from New York City where Mr Untermeyer then worked for Decca Records, and Ms Ivens as editor of

"We knew nothing of Fairfield County as 'the haven of the cultural elite'" he writes in

In nearby towns, he fostered friendships with poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren and playwright Arthur Miller. He counted artist Henry Schnackenberg, and Sydney Eddison and her husband, the late Martin Eddison, among his Newtown friends.

Now the published author of seven books on gardening and a recent book of poetry, Ms Eddison was still a fledging writer at the time she and her husband made the acquaintance of the Untermeyers, and much younger than the literary couple.

"I think we met the Untermeyers through mutual friends, Alexander Scouby and Lori March," Ms Eddison recently recalled. Mr Scouby and Ms March were then well-known actors, Mr Scouby for

"I used to drive the Untermeyers to New York to matinees," said Ms Eddison. "They loved theater and music. Louis was in his 80s at the time and didn't like to drive, though he was still extremely youthful, mentally," she said.

He was a brilliant man, she said, "an intellectual, by which I mean that he lived a life of the mind; was deeply and widely read; had a vast vocabulary; and knowledge of history, language, and literature," Ms Eddison said. He also had a sense of humor "and loved wicked limericks."

In Bryna Ivens, said Ms Eddison, Mr Untermeyer found a match. She was equally quick witted - and quick tempered.

"Their marriage was a lively contest of wits and wills, but they suited each other," she said.

"He didn't talk about his own writing, but was very much interested in new young writers. At that time, he was a mentor to Erica Jong. He was also kind enough to talk to a young man in whose writing I was interested, and he was generous to other young writers on the way up," she said.

In addition to words, Mr Untermeyer shared another passion with Ms Eddison.

"He loved gardens. I still have daylilies given to me by the Untermeyers. They also had a sunroom where Bryna grew orchids," Ms Eddison said.

"It was early days then. We were quite young," she said, "and the Untermeyers, quite old."

Louis Untermeyer died December 18, 1977, at the age of 92. Despite the self-effacing attitude conveyed in his autobiographies and his lack of academic credentials, he left behind a legacy that includes over 100 books he either edited or authored. He and Bryna Ivens Untermeyer created a number of books for young people, under the

His contributions to literature did not go unrecognized. According to information at IMDb.com and udel.edu, Mr Untermeyer was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 1956, and he served as a consultant in English Poetry for the United States Library of Congress from 1961 to 1963. He also served as a poet in residence at the University of Michigan (1939-1940), the University of Kansas City, Missouri (1939), and Iowa State College (1940). Schools used his Modern American and British poetry books widely, introducing college students to poetry. He lectured on literature for many years, both in the US and in other countries. Many of the books he edited and other personal memorabilia are preserved in a special section of the Lilly Library at Indiana University.

Mr Untermeyer, when he was in his 80s, confessed in his book

[naviga:h4 style="text-align: center;"]Poetry Of Louis Untermeyer[/naviga:h4]

This is the time when birds no longer cry

Haphazardly and high,

Nor dot the rails nor punctuate the trees

In swift apostrophes.

This is the time day hesitates, as though

It almost feared to go,

And the great span that promised to remain

Goes back into thin rain.

And, doubtful of itself, night throws one spark

To blaze the trail of dark;

And earth gives off cool breaths, green-growing smells,

And something else

That lingers between light and atmosphere;

And the third star swings clear.

This is the hour for lamps; this is the time

For the slow, homeward climb.

God of the grape whose veins are taught

To make flesh of the sun,

Lord of the olive tree whose thought

Brings oil out of the stone,

Father of fig and orange trees

That laugh to bear their load,

Forgive us all our trespasses

On thy too-tempting road.

And though thy children will be fed

On what the Lord decrees,

Give us this day our daily bread -

And wine and fruit and cheese.

Is it a tribute or betrayal when,

Turning from all the sweet, accustomed ways,

I leave your lips and eyes to seek you in

Some other face?

Why am I searching after what I have?

And going far to find the near at hand?

I do not know. I only know I crave

To find you at the end.

I only know that love has many a hearth;

That hunger has an endless path to roam;

That beauty is the ghost that haunts the earth

And leads me home.