W.S. Merwin, prize-winning poet of nature, dies at 91

HONOLULU (AP) — W.S. Merwin, a prolific and versatile master of modern poetry who evolved through a wide range of styles as he celebrated nature, condemned war and industrialism and reached for the elusive past, has died. He was 91.

The Merwin Conservancy confirmed to The Associated Press that he died in his sleep Friday in his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Merwin founded the nonprofit with his wife.

A Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate, Merwin completed more than 20 books and ranked high in the pantheon for decades, from early works inspired by myths and legends to late meditations on age and time.

Merwin received virtually every honor a poet could ask for — more, it turned out, than he wanted. In protest of the Vietnam War, he declined a Pulitzer in 1971 for “The Carrier of Ladders.”