The appointment last week of 82-year-old William Stanley Merwin as the U.S. poet laureate both honors his 58-year contribution to American arts and letters and returns the largely ceremonial post to the realm of the traditional white male poet at a time when the field is growing more diverse, like the nation.

The Librarian of Congress James Billington seemed to be recognizing that diversity when he named Kay Ryan, a gay woman who worked largely outside the poetry establishment, poet laureate in 2008. She was only the 10th woman among the 45 laureates since the job was created in 1937 when it was called consultant in poetry to Congress.

The laureate label was added in 1986 and was first worn by a man, Robert Penn Warren. Only three African-Americans -- Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove and Robert Hayden -- served in the job.

Although an Englishman, Stephen Spender held the position in 1965-66. The librarian has never selected an American of native, Hispanic or Asian heritage, a point that poet Francisco Aragon made to the Pittsburgh online literary magazine, Sampsonia Way (www.sampsoniaway.org):

"I am dismayed that U.S. poets of color continue to be rendered invisible by the Library of Congress," he told the magazine.

Mr. Aragon is the director of Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latin American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He read his poetry at a City of Asylum/Pittsburgh event Thursday. That organization publishes Sampsonia Way.

Mr. Merwin is a member of that generation of mostly male poets influenced by classical forms who emerged after World War II and published his first poetry in 1952, "A Mask for Janus."

He began writing lyrics for hymns as a child for his father, a Presbyterian minister from Armstrong County who moved to New York City where the poet was born. Mr. Merwin's parents met in Pittsburgh as these lines from his poem, "One of the Lives," describes:

... and if a young woman in

Kittanning

had not taught my father to drive at

age twenty

so that he got the job with the pastor

of the big church

in Pittsburgh where my mother was

working and if

my mother had not lost both parents

when she was a child

so that she had to go to her grandmother's

in Pittsburgh

I would not have found myself on an iron

cot

with my head by the fireplace of

a stone farmhouse ...

Mr. Merwin's father later served churches in Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland counties, closing his ministry in Vandergrift. His parents are buried in a Natrona Heights cemetery.

A graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Merwin lived in Europe for many years. Later, he became a major translator of Latin, French and Spanish literature, particularly the classic French playwrights Racine and Corneille and the poet Rimbaud, in 15 books.

In 15 collections, his own poetry is distinguished by its different forms and experimentation. After moving to Hawaii in the 1970s, Mr. Merwin has focused on environmental issues in his poetry.

Since 1970, writes British critic Michael Schmidt, "he has reinvented himself ... and with a devotion to the planet which has moved from the baroque to the Doric, a style that has consciously simplified itself, even as its themes have become more demanding."

Mr. Merwin is a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes -- 1970 and 2009 -- as well as numerous other honors, including the National Book Award. His collection, "The Shadow of Sirius," was the latest Pulitzer winner.

He last read in Pittsburgh at the International Poetry Forum Nov. 16, 2006. Other appearances here included stops at the forum in 1970 and 1997.

Mr. Merwin will begin his tenure Oct. 25, opening the library's annual literary series. His term, with a stipend of $36,000 from a private endowment, will run for one year and has no specified duties outside of the reading series.

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