Louis Aston Marantz Simpson (March 27, 1923 – September 14, 2012)[1] was an American poet born in Jamaica.
[2][3][4] At the age of 17, he emigrated to the United States and began attending Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren.
[5] During World War II, from 1943 to 1945 he was a member of the elite 101st Airborne Division and would fight in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
At Bastogne bitterly cold temperatures had to be endured while the 101st Division was surrounded by enemy forces for days.
Simpson's lifelong expatriate status has influenced his poetry, and he often uses the lives of ordinary Americans in order to critically investigate the myths the country tells itself.
Collected Poems (1988) and There You Are (1995) focus on the lives of everyday citizens, using simple diction and narratives to expose the bewildering reality of the American dream.