John Ciardi Biography

John Ciardi	John Anthony Ciardi Born: 1916-06-24 Birthplace: Boston, MA Died: 1986-03-30 Location of Death: Edison, NJ Cause of Death: Heart Failure Race: White Field: Poet Famous for: How Does a Poem Mean?
Field: Poet

John Anthony Ciardi was an American poet, translator, and etymologist.

Ciardi was born in Boston's Little Italy. He attended Bates College, Tufts College and the University of Michigan. After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he taught at the University of Kansas City, Harvard, and finally at Rutgers. In 1961, he left his tenured position for an independent career.

Ciardi was well-known for his poetry for adults and children and his English translations of Dante Alighieri's great works. He worked with Isaac Asimov on collections of limericks.

As an etymologist, he is known for a three-volume Browser's Dictionary and his broadcasts on National Public Radio, both as host of A Word in Your Ear and as a commentator for Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.

He died on Easter Sunday in 1986 of a heart attack in New Jersey, but not before composing his own epitaph:

Here, time concurring (and it does);
Lies Ciardi. If no kingdom come,
A kingdom was. Such as it was
This one beside it is a slum.

NPR continues to make his commentaries available. Etymologies and commentary on words such as daisy, demijohn, jimmies, gerrymander, glitch, snafu, cretin, and baseball, among others, are available from the archives of NPR's website.

NPR also began making his commentaries available as podcasts, starting in November 2005.