John Maynard is Professor of English Emeritus at New York University and a literary scholar whose work has included studies on Victorian literature, literary criticism, and reading theory. Publicly available sources note that he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEH grant, and the Thomas J. Wilson Prize from Harvard University Press for his work on Robert Browning. Recent years have seen his focus turn toward poetry, including What’s It Like To Be Old?, a collection examining aging, memory, health, companionship, and daily life through reflective and conversational poems. In this interview, Maynard discusses his path from scholarship to poetry, the experiences that shaped this collection, and the role of observation and reflection in his writing.

John, thank you for joining this interview. Could you introduce yourself to readers, share a little about your background, what you do, and what continues to guide your work today?

I am 84 years old and began working as a full-time poet when I retired at 77. Before that, my duties as a professor at NYU and my academic writing took up most of my work energy.

I have completed six books of poetry and have had all of them accepted for publication so far. I probably have four or five more left to edit and organize. The poetry is already written but still needs editing and arrangement.

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After many years in literary scholarship and teaching, what led you to devote more time to poetry, particularly in recent years?

I always loved poetry, and much of my teaching was about poetry. I had always found time to write a few poems, including a good one written while sitting on a space heater in a Paris garret when I was 22.

My last book was about literary theory, arguing that the reader has the use of the text as a place for personal interpretation and ideas. I guess that freed me to write poems for the use of the reader—open and imaginative.

I was in Italy for a semester and felt I had a great deal to say about everything interesting around me. I found the words coming easily, the poem shaping itself in my head. I resolved to keep writing while this kind of inspiration persisted.

It lasted about ten years, and then I felt ready to devote my energies to editing the poems and seeing whether I could get them published.

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What’s It Like To Be Old? explores aging through everyday experiences and observations. What first inspired you to shape these reflections into a full poetry collection?

When I started writing poetry frequently, I was entering early old age. I had a serious health situation—a heart attack and several bouts of pneumonia—and that led me to think about the process and reality of aging.

When I read through my poems while thinking about publication, I saw that I had returned to this subject again and again from many perspectives: serious, sad, comic, reflective, angry, and accepting; from my own point of view and from those of other people.

I realized I could organize the best of these many poems into a meaningful collection that shared my views of being old with others.

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Many poems in the book focus on ordinary routines, conversations, and encounters. What draws you to these quieter moments as material for poetry?

I was walking my dog when I developed—and often even wrote—these poems. My imagination was captured by the reflections on aging that emerged from conversations with other dog walkers in the park.

I wrote an entire book, Armando and Maisie, already published, that reflects on the life cycle through my joys and final pains with my dear dog.

Conversations multiplied about what it was like to grow old.

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The collection balances humor, memory, reflection, and uncertainty. How did you approach maintaining that balance while writing about aging and mortality?

I found that my best poems naturally occupied those qualities, allowing me to approach old age in distinct ways within individual poems.

We all experience changing moods throughout each day. Poets allow those moods to develop into forms. But moods also change over time.

When I assembled the poems into a collection, I made sure to present a variety of approaches in each section.

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Your academic work has involved literary criticism, interpretation, and readers’ experiences with texts. Did your years of studying literature influence the way you approached writing poetry for general readers?

As I noted above, my academic work, which explored the history and interpretation of literature, eventually led me to reflect on readers’ activities, a subject I addressed in my last academic book.

I realized that the work I most admired did not try to force readers into a single interpretation. I wanted to give readers a playground of language to enjoy and exercise their sensibilities in, just as I could myself.

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Several publicly available biographies mention fellowships, awards, editorial work, and decades in education. Looking back, which milestones or experiences do you feel shaped your perspective on literature and communication the most?

My first major work was a biography of the young Robert Browning. I could see him developing a new poetry out of his family, environment, and relationship to the poetry of others.

I learned that there is a subtle and mysterious process through which we develop ourselves as we absorb the life around us.

That realization allowed me to feel comfortable drawing upon the world as I experienced it, along with all the past poets and their works within me, to create something of my own.

Rather than forcing artistic creation, I came to see it as something experienced into writing—a somewhat arcane process.

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The poems often present aging as both physical and emotional rather than purely medical or social. What conversations about growing older do you think people avoid too often?

Younger people often try to avoid thinking about growing old entirely, as though it is somehow something they will escape.

When they do think about it, they often rely on stereotypes to distance themselves from imagining their own future in that position.

For many, old age becomes a quick route to death, as I note in my poem about old people in movies, where being identified as old sets characters up for sunsets and death scenes.

Old age is not a disease, and for many people it lasts a long time. Yet discussions most often focus on final stages, such as Alzheimer’s or cancer, rather than on productive and reflective living, companionship, sexuality, and awareness of mortality.

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Much of your poetry has reportedly been written while walking through public spaces and observing daily life. How important are movement, place, and routine to your creative process?

That’s an interesting question. I have often written on the move and eventually used a small recorder so I could walk and write at the same time.

You do not fall asleep when you write that way. Your brain gets fresh air and your heart pumps strongly.

I tend to write poems with strong activity, whether in their subjects or in the action of the language itself.

I suppose that if I had written mostly in bed, which I rarely did, my poetry might have been more dreamy and isolated from others.

But it was always my ambition to write poetry that has something to say and says it in a way that others can grasp.

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Readers from different generations may approach this collection differently. What kinds of reflections or discussions do you hope the book encourages among readers of varying ages?

I have already spoken about younger readers above. My title poem expresses my wish to share the experience of being old with other older—or becoming older—people.

The hope it expresses is to offer companionship along a path that can be wonderful, tragic, or both at once.

The organization of the sections leads readers toward the Shakespearean phrase, “Ripeness is all.”

May the book reach out and touch others experiencing old age.

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If you were to write your own bio, what would you say? And as your work evolves, what kind of impact do you hope it has?

My story is as follows: I am Professor of English Emeritus at NYU. I have published five nonfiction books, including three with Harvard and Cambridge, along with many articles. I have also done a great deal of editing, including co-editing a journal with Cambridge for 26 years.

I won the Thomas J. Wilson Prize from Harvard University Press for a biography of Robert Browning. I was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEH Grant. Recently, I received an Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who.

I am listed on Wikipedia (John R. Maynard). I am also a member of PEN. My website is johnrmaynard.com.

During most of my adult life, I wrote some poetry and planned to write more. As I neared retirement, I found time to write many additional poems.

For the past three years, I have been editing them for book publication and now have six completed books, all of which have been accepted for publication. Two are already out, and two more are scheduled for release this year.

My poems have received the Literary Titan Award and three awards from the BREW Project, including two for What’s It Like To Be Old?, and they have been semifinalists in two additional literary contests.

Quite simply, I believe poetry is the finest form of written communication, still connected to its oral origins. I hope to bring this old medium back vigorously into people’s lives, now and in the future.

I believe my poems have something worth reading and hearing.

Related

Editorial Review: “What’s It Like To Be Old?” by John Maynard