In June 1946 she married Victor Kumin, a Harvard graduate and engineering consultant; they had three children, two daughters and a son.

From 1976 until her death in February 2014, she and her husband lived on a farm in Warner, New Hampshire, where they bred Arabian and quarter horses.

Critics have compared Kumin with Elizabeth Bishop because of her meticulous observations and with Robert Frost, for she frequently devotes her attention to the rhythms of life in rural New England.

Throughout her career, Kumin has struck a balance between her sense of life's transience and her fascination with the dense physical presence of the world around her.

Together with fellow-poet Carolyn Kizer, she first served on and then resigned from the board of chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, an act that galvanized the movement for opening this august body to broader representation by women and minorities.