 He would receive the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1983 for his epic poem "The Changing Light at Sandover" (composed partly of supposedly supernatural messages received via the use of a Ouija board).In 1990, he received the first Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry awarded by the Library of Congress for "The Inner Room".He garnered the National Book Award for Poetry twice, in 1967 for "Nights and Days" and in 1979 for "".