Wait

“Wait” was published in 1980 by Galway Kinnell in his collection of poems, Mortal Acts, Mortal Words. The poem is a monologue communicating a message of hope, patience, and trust in the renewal of life to someone considering suicide after heartbreak. Kinnell, a professor at the time, wrote the poem for a student after she visited him during his office hours and confessed her desire to commit suicide following a breakup. The poem, like much of Kinnell’s poetry, is influenced by the work of Walt Whitman, and seeks to elevate the psychological and spiritual experience of humanity. “Wait” is one of Kinnell’s best known poems, written after his surrealist period in the 1960s and 1970s, and just before winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Selected Poems, published in 1982.

Poet Biography

Galway Kinnell was born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 1, 1927. He grew up in Pawtucket and later served in the U.S. Navy for two years before earning a BA from Princeton University in 1948. He received his MA from the University of Rochester in 1949 and traveled abroad for many years before returning to the United States in the 1960s.

Kinnell was active in the Civil Rights movement, helping to register African American voters in Louisiana as a member of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE).