SOURCE: "The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize—1994," in The Nation, New York, Vol. 259, No. 20, December 12, 1994, pp. 733, 735.

An American poet and educator, Stern was one of the judges for the 1994 Lenore Marshall/Nation Poetry Prize. The other judges were Deborah Digges and Stephen Dunn. In the following essay, Stern offers a thematic and stylistic analysis of Travels, concluding that this is Merwin's best collection yet.

What I find myself responding to over and over in W. S. Merwin's Travels is the unique combination of tenderness and knowledge—closeness, love, pity, coupled with cruel history, true narrative, accuracy. It is not a new combination for Merwin, but the focus is somewhat different. The spaces are, as it were, filled in, and the poet, as man, is totally accountable; and though the investigative heart of the poet goes from one obscure place to another, the voice is deeply personal and the sadness...