William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose and produced many works in translation.

Residing in a rural part of Maui, Hawaii, he wrote prolifically and was dedicated to the restoration of the island's rainforests.

He grew up on the corner of Fourth Street and New York Avenue in Union City, New Jersey, and lived there until 1936, when his family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania.

As a child, Merwin was enamored of the natural world, sometimes finding himself talking to the large tree in his back yard.

There, he met Dido Milroy, fifteen years his senior, with whom he collaborated on a play and whom he later married and lived with in London.

In 1968, Merwin moved to New York City, separating from his wife Dido Milroy, who stayed at their home in France.

[13] Merwin's early subjects were frequently tied to mythological or legendary themes, while many of his poems featured animals.

[2] In June 2010, the Library of Congress named Merwin the seventeenth United States Poet Laureate, to replace the outgoing Kay Ryan.

[17] In 2010, with his wife Paula, he co-founded The Merwin Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving his hand-built, off-the-grid poet's home and 18-acre restored property in Haiku, Maui, which has been transformed from an "agricultural wasteland" to a "Noah's Ark" for rare palm trees, one of the largest and most biodiverse collections of palms in the world.

[18] Merwin's last book of poetry, Garden Time (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), was composed during the difficult process of losing his eyesight.