Smith later attended Wadham College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and continued his education at the University of Florence.
[2][3] In 1947 he married the poet Barbara Howes and they lived for a time in England and Italy.
Smith was a poet in residence at Williams College from 1959 to 1967 and taught at Columbia University from 1973 until 1975.
He was the first Native American named to the position of Poet Laureate in the United States.
[4] Smith was the author of ten collections of poetry of which two were finalists for the National Book Award.