W. S. Merwin was born on September 30, 1927 in New York City. He was the son of a Presbyterian Minister, began writing hymns at a very young age, and grew up in a troubled household which is expressed in his writing. Merwin attended Princeton University on a scholarship where he studied the Romance languages which led to him working as a translator for Spanish, Latin, and French poetry. Soon afterwards, he married his first wife Dorothy, and started writing verse plays while traveling the world. His most well-known verse play, during this time of his life, was A Mask for Janus for its classical imagery and mythological atmosphere. Merwin moved back to America, with his second wife Dido, and started switching his style of writing from verse plays to poetry. This transition is evident through the books he wrote, during the time, such as, Green with Beasts and The Drunk…show more content… This is portrayed in, “Oh, I know/I’ve no excuse to be stuck here turning” to show that there is no reason why the narrator should be confused, yet relationships are like the “spinning mirror” and thus has confusion over what may occur or may not occur. This idea of the loss of love continues with,“The same film over and over, / And an old one at that, shattering its account” once love is lost it deteriorates like that of an old film, never to be recovered again. Merwin puts finality through the use of assonance through words like stuck and turning rather than just confusion to show that that love has its multiple alternatives. Syntax assists with assonance when using “old one at that” rather than just saying old to emphasis the deterioration of love. Blank verse is simply used with the other literary devices to make the account of love look commonplace rather than