'Walking Through the Universe,' Wordsmith Made Poetry Personal

W.D. Snodgrass, 83, a founding figure of the "confessional" school of poetry, whose tightly controlled autobiographical verse exerted a powerful influence on other writers, died Jan. 13 of lung cancer at his farmhouse near Erieville, N.Y.

Mr. Snodgrass found early success, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his first book of poetry, "Heart's Needle," which appeared in 1959. In the deeply intimate poems, he explored his experiences in the military and his separation from his daughter because of a divorce.

The volume contained his most famous line -- "Snodgrass is walking through the universe" -- and turned away from the cool, impersonal poetry that prevailed at the time.

Several critics accused Mr. Snodgrass of being sentimental and self-involved, but "Heart's Needle" led to an immediate shift in what was considered acceptable poetic material.

"It's hard to believe that at one time it was quite improper to write about your personal relationships," Mr. Snodgrass told the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call in 2004. "Poets were supposed to be above human life. I finally decided to write about what I really cared about, and what I really cared about was having my daughter ripped away from me."

Poet Stanley Kunitz wrote in Harper's magazine in 1960 that Mr. Snodgrass had "the gift of transforming ordinary experience, including the domestic, into a decisive act of the imagination, remarkable for its pace and clarity and controlled emotion."

Mr. Snodgrass disliked the "confessional" label, but his impact could be seen in the work of Sylvia Plath and his onetime student, Anne Sexton. Established poets, including Theodore Roethke, Delmore Schwartz and Allen Ginsberg, adopted a more intimate style after reading Mr. Snodgrass, and he even influenced the later poetry of his mentors, Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Randall Jarrell.

"Snodgrass was a historical figure in American poetry," poet Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, said in an interview. "His first book created the confessional movement, which became the dominant style in the '70s and '80s."

Mr. Snodgrass changed his style over the years, switching from elaborately formal structures to a more open free verse, but his poetry was "almost invariably readable and lucid, and often witty and touching," critic Bruce Bawer wrote in The Washington Post in 1988.

In 1977, Mr. Snodgrass published a series of dramatic monologues called "The Fuehrer Bunker" -- not fully completed until 1995 -- in which he imaginatively re-created conversations inside Hitler's private bunker during the final days of World War II.

The "Fuehrer" collection created a furor of discontent far beyond the world of poetry, as critics charged that Mr. Snodgrass sympathized too closely with Nazi leaders.

"To admit they are human, you have to admit you might have some of their qualities," he said. It was briefly produced on stage, but "The Fuehrer Bunker" left Mr. Snodgrass's reputation in tatters.