Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner

Cold Morning Sky

by Marya Zaturenska

Summary

These quiet, image-driven lyrics explore solitude, the passage of seasons, and a half-elegiac sense of inherited European culture. Zaturenska works in delicate metrical forms, with restrained syntax and a coloration drawn from Renaissance and Romantic models. Her work brought a contemplative, old-world lyricism into the American poetry of the late 1930s.

Historical Context & Significance

Zaturenska, born in Kiev, brought a distinct European sensibility to American verse; she was married to fellow poet Horace Gregory.