"The First Four Books of Poems gathers all the poetry from W. S. Merwin's early books, including his celebrated debut, A Mask for Janus, which won the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1952. In these poems, readers can witness the maturation of a commanding poetic voice, one which has profoundly marked American literature in the latter half of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes index. "The poems in this volume were originally published in A Mask for Janus (1952), The Dancing Bears (1954), Green with Beasts (1956), and The Drunk in the Furnace (1960). They were subsequently republished in The First Four Books of Poems (Atheneum, 1975)"--T.p. verso.

A mask for Janus -- The dancing bears -- Green with beasts -- The drunk in the furnace.