During World War II, a new breed of American poet surfaced across the United States and introduced the world to an evolved and involved literary movement. In the 1940's this movement retreated from the raging experimental rants that had been present in past decades and a modern movement in verse had surfaced. Poets of this movement were more mature and distinguished than the writers of the previous generation with their insight and skeptical view of perceived values and morality. These poets saw the world as an unsafe land of disorder and in reply, they isolated themselves, searching for depth and answers through a comprehensive retreat of self-exploration.

There was no longer a need to establish oneself as a modern "twentieth century poet". In fact, the threat of prison had sobered the revolutionary enthusiasm of modernism, as poets were attracted to national universities. In the past a poet might have persevered as a journalist, freelance writer or blue-collar worker, while struggling to gain recognition, but now poets began turning up on English department facilities. As a result, experimental verse was no longer the dependency of tiny band's of eccentric's in England or New York, but rather it was taught in colleges across the country. By 1940 the colossal objectives of modernists verse had been accomplished: the pompous, overly-poetic declarations of the past had given way to a brief, precise, informal language; poets and their patrons were at ease with non-rhyming poems in open forms; and poets were independent in addressing virtually any thematic in their verse.

Among this new breed of emerging mid-century poets was that of Evansville native Jean Garrigue. Born Gertrude Louise Garrigus on December 8, 1914 to Allan Colfax and Gertrude Heath Garrigus, she later changed her name to the French spelling "Jean Garrigue". Jean spent the majority of her formative years between Evansville and Indianapolis before attending the University of Chicago in 1937, earning her Associate Bachelors degree. She later attended the University of Iowa, securing her Associate Masters degree in 1943.

Antibes by Claude Monet

During the late 1930's Jean worked as an editor for a weekly newspaper paper as well as a United Service Organization publication while going to school. After graduation, Jean Garrigue, as many struggling poets did during World War II, began teaching in universities in order to support herself and her art. She as a modern poetic mind was interested in expanding the horizons of youthful society particularly with the advent of a world war that was to become the most brutal war ever fought. She taught English-Lit in various institutions in the Midwest and New England. Garrigues vagabond lifestyle often displayed flexibility and none of her scholarly positions lasted for more than one year.

After having some nominal success publishing in poetry journals and magazines, Jean left her position with the University of Iowa, while getting an opportunity to break into an anthology entitled "Five young American poets of 1944", with the likes of Tennessee Williams. She progressed on and published six more books of poetry, some criticism, and a novel entitled "The Animal Hotel", leaving behind a succession of philosophical quotes, such as her famous, "If your nerve deny you, go above your nerve."

In 1947 Jean Garrigue published her first full-length publication entitled "The Ego and the Centaur". Many of the poems within this work use her love for nature to explain larger ideas not dissimilar to those of seventeenth century English literature. Garrigue's writings utilize images of the flowers "vervain, Queen Anne's lace, veronica, bloodroot, crocuses, harebells, oleander, chrysanthemums, and most important the rose" as metaphors for fragility, and strength behind fragility while withstanding nature's violent extremes. "I prefer elaborate structures to functional slick ones," Garrigue was once quoted. "Chopin, Keats, and Proust were early powerful influences. So were mountains and water."

Jean's poetry was distinctively influenced by her travels (treated as intimacy), and love (a place less visited). Upon leaving Queens College in 1953, Garrigue received a Rockefeller grant for writing and began writing as an expatriate in Europe. In 1955 Jean Garrigue returned to New England to teach at The New School for Social Research. In 1956 she was awarded the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation prize and the Hudson Review fellowship for poetry in 1957, along with some other awards allowing her the opportunity to refugee back to Europe to engage in writing poetry full time until 1960. At this time Jean was starting to receive attention from prolific critics like poet Stanley Kunitz, who called Garrigue 'a widely gifted poet…whose art took the road of excess that leads to the palace of wisdom, 'and also 'our one lyric poet who made ecstasy her home"'. In 1959, Garrigue published "A Water Walk by Villa d'Este"; a collection thematically focused on walks near bodies of water or scenery prosperous with water, in which she "explored desire and the minds continuum with the natural world".

After returning from Europe Jean Garrigue taught at the University of Connecticut until 1961 and was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship as well as nominated for a National Book Award for her work "Country Without Maps". She had now made New England her permanent residence as she continued to publish her poetry and prose successfully by way of awards and fellowships. In 1965 she began teaching at Smith College until leaving to teach at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. It was during this time that Garrigue served as one of the judges for the National Book Award for poetry. It wasn't until 1968 that Garrigues most important work entitled "New and Selected Poems" surfaced and on December 27, 1972 Jean Garrigue died at the age of 58.

Although she is often overlooked by scholars and readers alike, Jean Garrigue, from Evansville, Indiana, could easily be classified as one of the finest female American poets of the twentieth century. Displaying no boundaries at a time when boundaries were enforced and persevering not only as a poet but as a model for human dreams and freedoms.

BIO: Mike Adams is an American poet and writer from Southern Indiana. His work has been published in a growing number of online and print publications. Adams also writes, records, and performs as a spoken word artist and tours the country supporting his art. Visit his website at www.mike-adams.8m.net