Literary Chronology
c. 1498 Mirabai (sometimes written as M ̄ra ̄Ba ̄ ̄)
is born into a minor royal family in Merta, in
northwestern India.
1530: Mirabai’s “All I Was Doing Was Breath-
ing” is published.
1546: Mirabai dies, although some scholars con-
sider 1547 or 1550 to be a more likely date.
1757: William Blake is born on November 28 in
London.
1793: William Blake’s “A Poison Tree” is pub-
lished.
1809: Oliver Wendell Holmes is born on August
29 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1827: William Blake dies on August 12 in Lon-
don and is buried in an unmarked grave in Bun-
hill Fields, a Dissenters’ cemetery.
1858: Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “The Chambered
Nautilus” is published.
1880: Guillaume Apollinaire is born (most likely
with the name Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrow-
itzky) on August 26 in Rome.
1889: Conrad Aiken is born on August 5 in Sa-
vannah, Georgia.
1894: Oliver Wendell Holmes dies of respiratory
failure on October 7 in Boston.
1918: Guillaume Apollinaire dies of influenza on
November 9, two days before Armistice Day,
which will end World War I.
1918: Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Always” is pub-
lished.
1921: Marie Ponsot is born in Queens, a borough
of New York City.
1924: Yehuda Amichai is born on May 3 in
Wurzburg, Germany. He will come to be con-
sidered one of Israel’s greatest poets.
1930: Conrad Aiken’s “The Room” is published.
1934: Jean Valentine is born on April 27 in
Chicago, Illinois.
1939: Ted Kooser is born in April in Ames, Iowa.
1945: Carol Muske-Dukes is born on December
17 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
1948: Sherod Santos is born on September 9 in
Greenville, South Carolina.
1948: Heather McHugh is born on August 20 in
San Diego, California.
1950: Dana Gioia is born (Michael Dana Gioia)
on December 24 in Los Angeles, California.
1952:Dorianne Laux is born on January 10 in Au-
gusta, Maine.
1952: Naomi Shihab Nye is born on March 12 in
St. Louis, Missouri.
1958: Yehuda Amichai’s “Not like a Cypress” is
published.
1968: Sue (Suji) Kwock Kim is born.
1973: Conrad Aiken dies on August 17 in Savan-
nah at the age of eighty-four.xv