Born in Winnfield, Louisiana, United States Poet Laureate grew up in Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, outside of St. Louis. As the son of an Army officer, he spent many of his growing up years on a U.S. Army post, an experience that later informed his work, particularly in his memoir entitled Army Brat: A Memoir.

After high school he enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis, where he received the A.B. and Master of Arts. Later he studied at Columbia University and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He served in the Navy during World War II. He married a poet, Barbara Howes, in 1947. The couple had two sons, David and Gregory. The couple divorced during the 1960s.

He served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1960 to 1962. Smith was appointed poet-in-residence at Williams College in 1959 and served in that position until 1967. He also taught at Columbia University and currently serves as Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Hollins University. He currently lives in homes he owns in Cummington, Massachusetts, and Paris, France.

Smith has published ten collections of poetry. Two of these were finalists for the National Book Award. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1975. He has been the recipient of a variety of awards and grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and a fellowship from the Ford Foundation. He served as Poet Laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968-1970.

While comfortable writing in a variety of genres, Smith is perhaps best known today for his work as a translator and his efforts to introduce Americans to foreign authors. Over his career he has produced more than thirty books of poetry, criticism, translations, and children's literature. The William Jay Smith Papers make up one of the largest groups in the Modern Literary Manuscript Collection, and they well-demonstrate his versatility. Due to his translation skills and his promotion of world literature, Smith has been the recipient of awards from the French Academy, the Swedish Academy, and the Hungarian government.

He is currently working on a new book concerning his friendship with author and playwright Tennessee Williams. Considered a lyric poet, Smith was described by critic Elizabeth Frank as "a singer rather than a prophet, and his voice tends toward the elegiac rather than the apocalyptic, the reflective rather than the incantatory. He is rooted in the concrete and the sensuous -- in sight, sound, and touch."