The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse is a poetry anthology edited by Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...

. It was published in 1973

1973 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Canadian poet and author, Michael Ondaatje adapts his 1970 book of poetry, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, into a play which this year is first produced in Stratford, Ontario; it will appear in...

 by Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

 with ISBN 0-19-812137-7. Larkin writes in the short preface that the selection is wide rather than deep; and also notes that for the post-1914 period it is more a collection of poems, than of poets. The remit was limited by him to poets with a period of residence in the British Isles. The volume contains works by 207 poets.

Contributing poets

• Allison, Drummond
  Drummond Allison
  Drummond Allison was an English war poet of World War II.He was born in Caterham, Surrey, and educated at Bishop's Stortford College and at Queen's College, Oxford. After Sandhurst training, he became an intelligence officer in the East Surrey Regiment. He served in North Africa and Italy, where...
  
  
• Allott, Kenneth
  Kenneth Allott
  Kenneth Allott was an Anglo-Irish poet and academic, and authority on Matthew Arnold.-Life:Born in Glamorgan, where his father, a doctor, was serving as a locum, Allott later experienced the break-up of his parents' marriage, followed by the death of his mother...
  
  
• Amis, Kingsley
  Kingsley Amis
  Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
  
  
• Asquith, Herbert
• Auden, W. H.
  W. H. Auden
  Wystan Hugh Auden , who published as W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or citizenship" in See also...
  
  
• Bantock, Gavin
• Barker, George
  George Barker (poet)
  George Granville Barker was an English poet and author.-Life and work:Barker was born in Loughton, near Epping Forest in Essex, England, elder brother of Kit Barker [painter] George Barker was raised by his Irish mother and English father in Battersea, London. He was educated at an L.C.C. school...
  
  
• Barton, Joan
• Beer, Patricia
  Patricia Beer
  Patricia Beer was an English poet and critic.She was born in Exmouth, Devon into a family of Plymouth Brethren. She moved away from her religious background as a young adult, becoming a teacher and academic...
  
  
• Beerbohm, Max
  Max Beerbohm
  Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
  
  
• Bell, Martin
  Martin Bell (poet)
  Martin Bell was a British poet.Bell was strongly influenced by T. S. Eliot and Jules Laforgue. He used complex ironies and was skilled at deflating by rhetorical devices. However, he was far from being a right-wing satirist....
  
  
• Belloc, Hilaire
  Hilaire Belloc
  Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
  
  
• Bennett, Arnold
  Arnold Bennett
  - Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
  
  
• Benson, Stella
  Stella Benson
  Stella Benson was an English feminist, travel writer, and novelist.-Early life:Benson was born to Ralph Beaumont Benson , a member of the landed gentry, and Caroline Essex Cholmondeley at Lutwyche Hall in Shropshire in 1892. Stella's aunt, Mary Cholmondeley, was a novelist. Stella was often ill...
  
  
• Betjeman, John
  John Betjeman
  Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
  
  
• Binyon, Laurence
  Laurence Binyon
  Robert Laurence Binyon was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. His most famous work, For the Fallen, is well known for being used in Remembrance Sunday services....
  
  
• Blackburn, Thomas
• Blunden, Edmund
  Edmund Blunden
  Edmund Charles Blunden, MC was an English poet, author and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was also a reviewer for English publications and an academic in Tokyo and later Hong Kong...
  
  
• Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen
  Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
  Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was an English poet and writer. He was born at Petworth House in Sussex, and served in the Diplomatic Service from 1858 to 1869. His mother was a Catholic convert and he was educated at Twyford School, Stonyhurst and at St Mary's College, Oscott...
  
  
• Lyon, Lilian Bowes
  Lilian Bowes Lyon
  -Biography:Born 23 December 1895 at Ridley Hall in Northumberland. She was the youngest daughter of the Honourable Francis Bowes Lyon. and was a first cousin of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother....
  
  
• Bridges, Robert
  Robert Bridges
  Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, was a British poet, and poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.-Personal and professional life:...
  
  
• Brooke, Rupert
  Rupert Brooke
  Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...
  
  
• Brownjohn, Alan
  Alan Brownjohn
  Alan Charles Brownjohn FRSL is an English poet and novelist.He was born in London and educated at Merton College, Oxford. He taught until 1979, when he became a full-time writer...
  
  
• Bunting, Basil
  Basil Bunting
  Basil Cheesman Bunting was a significant British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of Briggflatts in 1966. He had a lifelong interest in music that led him to emphasise the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud...
  
  
• Cameron, Norman
  Norman Cameron
  Norman Cameron was a Scottish poet, distantly related to Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay who, between the two world wars, associated on Majorca with Robert Graves and Laura Riding. Later, as a part-time Fitzrovian, he was a colleague of Dylan Thomas, Geoffrey Grigson, Len Lye, John Aldridge RA,...
  
  
• Campbell, Joseph
  Joseph Campbell
  Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
  
  
• Campbell, Roy
  Roy Campbell (poet)
  Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell, better known as Roy Campbell, was an Anglo-African poet and satirist. He was considered by T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Edith Sitwell to have been one of the best poets of the period between the First and Second World Wars...
  
  
• Cannan, May Wedderburn
  May Wedderburn Cannan
  May Wedderburn Cannan was a British poet who was active in World War I.-Early life:She was the second of three daughters of Charles Cannan, Dean of Trinity College, Oxford .In 1911, at the age of 18 she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, training as a nurse and eventually reaching...
  
  
• Caudwell, Christopher
  Christopher Caudwell
  Christopher Caudwell is the pseudonym of Christopher St. John Sprigg , a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet.He was born into a Catholic family living at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney district, south-west London...
  
  
• Causley, Charles
  Charles Causley
  Charles Stanley Causley, CBE, FRSL was a Cornish poet, schoolmaster and writer. His work is noted for its simplicity and directness and for its associations with folklore, especially when linked to his native Cornwall....
  
  
• Chesterton, G. K.
  G. K. Chesterton
  Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
  
  
• Church, Richard
  Richard Church (poet)
  Richard Thomas Church was an English writer, known as poet and critic; he also wrote novels and verse plays, and three well-received volumes of autobiography.-Life:...
  
  
• Clarke, Austin
  Austin Clarke
  Austin Ardinel Chesterfield Clarke, is a Canadian novelist, essayist and short story writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Born in St...
  
  
• Cole, Barry
  Barry Cole
  Barry Cole is a British poet.Apart from two years as Northern Arts Fellow in Literature at the universities of Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and two years in the RAF as a National Serviceman, he worked until 1995 as an editor at the Central Office of Information, and is now a freelance editor...
  
  
• Cole, G. D. H.
  G. D. H. Cole
  George Douglas Howard Cole was an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. As a libertarian socialist he was a long-time member of the Fabian Society and an advocate for the cooperative movement...
  
  
• Colum, Padraic
  Padraic Colum
  Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival.-Early life:...
  
  
• Comfort, Alex
  Alex Comfort
  Alexander Comfort, MB BChir, PhD, DSc was a medical professional, gerontologist, anarchist, pacifist, conscientious objector and writer, best known for The Joy of Sex, which played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution...
  
  
• Connor, Tony
  Tony Connor
  Tony Connor is a British poet and playwright.After leaving school at fourteen, Connor served in the Royal Army as a tank gunner, and later worked as a textile designer and in radio and television in Manchester in the 1960s...
  
  
• Conquest, Robert
  Robert Conquest
  George Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...
  
  
• Cornford, Frances
  Frances Cornford
  Frances Crofts Cornford was an English poet.She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Ellen Crofts, born into the Darwin — Wedgwood family. She was a granddaughter of the British naturalist Charles Darwin. Her elder half-brother was the golf writer Bernard Darwin...
  
  
• Coward, Noel
  Noël Coward
  Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
  
  
• Currey, R. N.
• Davidson, John
  John Davidson (poet)
  John Davidson was a Scottish poet, playwright and novelist, best known for his ballads. He also did translations from French and German...
  
  
• Davie, Donald
  Donald Davie
  Donald Alfred Davie was an English Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract, but often evoke various landscapes.-Biography:...
  
  
• Davies, Idris
  Idris Davies
  Idris Davies was a Welsh poet. He was born in Rhymney, near Caerphilly in South Wales, the Welsh-speaking son of colliery chief winderman Evan Davies and his wife Elizabeth Ann. Davies became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English...
  
  
• Davies, W. H.
  W. H. Davies
  William Henry Davies or W. H. Davies was a Welsh poet and writer. Davies spent a significant part of his life as a tramp or vagabond in the United States and United Kingdom, but became known as one of the most popular poets of his time...
  
  
• Day-Lewis, Cecil
  Cecil Day-Lewis
  Cecil Day-Lewis CBE was an Irish poet and the Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake...
  
  
• Dehn, Paul
  Paul Dehn
  Paul Dehn was a British screenwriter.-Biography and work:Dehn was born in 1912 in Manchester, England. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and attended Brasenose College, Oxford...
  
  
• de la Mare, Walter
  Walter de la Mare
  Walter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners"....
  
  
• Douglas, Keith
  Keith Douglas
  Keith Castellain Douglas , was an English poet noted for his war poetry during World War II and his wry memoir of the Western Desert Campaign, Alamein to Zem Zem. He was killed during the invasion of Normandy.-Poetry:...
  
  
• Drinkwater, John
• Dunn, Douglas
  Douglas Dunn
  Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He currently lives in Scotland.-Background:Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire. He was educated at the Scottish School of Librarianship, and worked as a librarian before he started his studies in Hull...
  
  
• Durrell, Lawrence
  Lawrence Durrell
  Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...
  
  
• Dyment, Clifford
  Clifford Dyment
  Clifford Henry Dyment FRSL was a British poet, literary critic, editor and journalist, best known for his poems on countryside topics...
  
  
• Eliot, T. S.
  T. S. Eliot
  Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
  
  
• Lewis, Colin
  Colin Lewis
  Colin Lewis is an ex-professional racing cyclist. He started racing at 19 and rode the Milk Race in 1960, finishing 7th.- Biography :...
  
  
• Empson, William
  William Empson
  Sir William Empson was an English literary critic and poet.He was known as "燕卜荪" in Chinese.He was widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, fundamental to the New Critics...
  
  
• Enright, D. J.
  D. J. Enright
  Dennis Joseph Enright was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic, and general man of letters.-Life:He was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and educated at Leamington College and Downing College, Cambridge...
  
  
• Ewart, Gavin
  Gavin Ewart
  Gavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...
  
  
• Falkner, John Meade
• Flecker, James Elroy
  James Elroy Flecker
  James Elroy Flecker was an English poet, novelist and playwright. As a poet he was most influenced by the Parnassian poets.-Biography:...
  
  
• Flint, F. S.
  F. S. Flint
  Frank Stuart Flint was an English poet and translator who was a prominent member of the Imagist group. Ford Madox Ford called him "one of the greatest men and one of the beautiful spirits of the country"....
  
  
• Frankau, Gilbert
  Gilbert Frankau
  Gilbert Frankau was a popular British novelist. He was known also for verse including a number of verse novels, and short stories....
  
  
• Fraser, G. S.
  G. S. Fraser
  George Sutherland Fraser was a Scottish poet, literary critic and academic. He was born in Glasgow, later moving with his family to Aberdeen. He went to the University of St. Andrews....
  
  
• Fuller, Roy
  Roy Fuller
  Roy Broadbent Fuller was an English writer, known mostly as a poet. He was born in Failsworth, Lancashire, and brought up in Blackpool. He worked as a lawyer for a building society, serving in the Royal Navy 1941-1946.Poems was his first book of poetry. He began to write fiction also in the 1950s...
  
  
• Garioch, Robert
  Robert Garioch
  Robert Garioch Sutherland, , was a Scottish poet and translator. His poetry was written almost exclusively in the Scots language, he was a key member in the literary revival of the language in the mid-20th century...
  
  
• Gascoyne, David
  David Gascoyne
  David Gascoyne was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement.-Early life and Surrealism:...
  
  
• Gibson, Wilfrid
• Gittings, Robert
  Robert Gittings
  Robert William Victor Gittings CBE , was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and minor poet...
  
  
• Gogarty, Oliver St. John
  Oliver St. John Gogarty
  Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty was an Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist, who served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses....
  
  
• Gould, Gerald
  Gerald Gould
  Gerald Gould was an English writer, known as a journalist and reviewer, essayist and poet.-Life:He was brought up in Norwich, and studied at University College, London and Magdalen College, Oxford...
  
  
• Graham, W. S.
  W. S. Graham
  William Sydney Graham was a Scottish poet who is often associated with Dylan Thomas and the neo-romantic group of poets. Graham's poetry was mostly overlooked in his lifetime but, partly due to the support of Harold Pinter, his work has enjoyed a revival in recent years...
  
  
• Gransden, K. W.
• Graves, Robert
  Robert Graves
  Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
  
  
• Green F. Pratt
  Fred Pratt Green
  The Reverend Fred Pratt Green CBE was a British Methodist minister and hymnwriter.Born in Roby, Lancashire, England, he began his ministry in the Filey circuit. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1928 and served circuits in the north and south of England until 1969. During his career as a...
  
  
• Grenfell, Julian
  Julian Grenfell
  The Honourable Julian Henry Francis Grenfell DSO , was a British soldier and poet of World War I.-Early life:Julian Grenfell was born at 4 St James's Square, London, the eldest son of William Grenfell, later Baron Desborough, and Ethel Priscilla Fane, daughter of Julian Fane...
  
  
• Grigson, Geoffrey
  Geoffrey Grigson
  Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was a British writer. He was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall.-Life:...
  
  
• Gunn, Thom
  Thom Gunn
  Thom Gunn, born Thomson William Gunn , was an Anglo-American poet who was praised both for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style...
  
  
• Gurney, Ivor
  Ivor Gurney
  Ivor Bertie Gurney was an English composer and poet.-Life:Born at 3 Queen Street, Gloucester in 1890, the second of four children of David Gurney, a tailor, and his wife Florence, a seamstress, Gurney showed musical ability early...
  
  
• Haldane, J. B. S.
  J. B. S. Haldane
  John Burdon Sanderson Haldane FRS , known as Jack , was a British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist. A staunch Marxist, he was critical of Britain's role in the Suez Crisis, and chose to leave Oxford and moved to India and became an Indian citizen...
  
  
• Hamburger, Michael
  Michael Hamburger
  Michael Hamburger OBE was a noted British translator, poet, critic, memoirist, and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and W. G. Sebald from German, and his work in literary criticism...
  
  
• Hardy, Thomas
  Thomas Hardy
  Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
  
  
• Harvey, F. W.
  F. W. Harvey
  Frederick William Harvey was an English poet, known for poems composed in prisoner-of-war camps at Krefeld and Gütersloh that were sent back to England, during World War I....
  
  
• Hassall, Christopher
  Christopher Hassall
  Christopher Vernon Hassall was an English actor, dramatist, librettist, lyricist and poet, who found his greatest fame in a memorable musical partnership with the actor and composer Ivor Novello after working together in the same touring company...
  
  
• Heath-Stubbs, John
  John Heath-Stubbs
  John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs OBE was an English poet and translator, known for his verse influenced by classical myths, and the long Arthurian poem Artorius .- Biography :...
  
  
• Henri, Adrian
  Adrian Henri
  Adrian Henri was a British poet and painter best remembered as the founder of poetry-rock group The Liverpool Scene and as one of three poets in the best-selling anthology The Mersey Sound, along with Brian Patten and Roger McGough. The trio of Liverpool poets came to prominence in that city's...
  
  
• Herbert, A. P.
  A. P. Herbert
  Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, CH was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist...
  
  
• John Hewitt
• Higgins, Brian
  Brian Higgins
  Brian Higgins is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the southern two-thirds of Buffalo proper, most of that city's eastern and southern suburbs, and all of Chautauqua County.-Early life, education and career:A native of...
  
  
• Higgins, F. R.
  F. R. Higgins
  Frederick Robert Higgins was an Irish poet and theatre director.-Early years:Higgins was born on the west coast of Ireland in Foxford, which is located in County Mayo...
  
  
• Hill, Geoffrey
  Geoffrey Hill
  Geoffrey Hill is an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston University. Hill has been considered to be among the most distinguished poets of his generation...
  
  
• Hobsbaum, Philip
  Philip Hobsbaum
  Philip Dennis Hobsbaum was a British teacher, poet and critic.-Life:Hobsbaum was born into a Polish Jewish family in London, and brought up in Bradford, in Yorkshire. He read English at Downing College, Cambridge, where he was taught and heavily influenced by F. R. Leavis...
  
  
• Hodgson, Ralph
  Ralph Hodgson
  Ralph Hodgson , Order of the Rising Sun ,was an English poet, very popular in his lifetime on the strength of a small number of anthology pieces, such as The Bull. He was one of the more 'pastoral' of the Georgian poets...
  
  
• Holbrook, David
  David Holbrook
  David Kenneth Holbrook was a British writer, poet and academic. From 1989 he was an Emeritus Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.-Life:...
  
  
• Holden, Molly
  Molly Holden
  Molly Winifred Holden was a British poet. Her maiden name is Gilbert, granddaughter of popular children's author Henry Gilbert.-Life:She grew up in Surrey, and Wiltshire.She graduated from King's College London in 1951....
  
  
• Housman, A. E.
  A. E. Housman
  Alfred Edward Housman , usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900...
  
  
• Hughes, Ted
  Ted Hughes
  Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
  
  
• Hulme, T. E.
  T. E. Hulme
  Thomas Ernest Hulme was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence upon modernism.-Early life:...
  
  
• Iremonger, Valentin
  Valentin Iremonger
  Valentin Iremonger was an Irish diplomat and poet.He was born in Dublin and joined the diplomatic service. He served as Irish Ambassador to Sweden, Norway, Finland, India and Luxembourg....
  
  
• Isherwood, Christopher
  Christopher Isherwood
  Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
  
  
• Ivens, Michael
• Jennings, Elizabeth
  Elizabeth Jennings
  Elizabeth Jennings was an English poet.-Life and career:Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. When she was six, her family moved to Oxford, where she remained for the rest of her life. Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, pp. 98-100. There she later attended St Anne's College...
  
  
• Joseph, Jenny
  Jenny Joseph
  -Life and career:She was born in Birmingham, and with a scholarship, studied English literature at St Hilda's College, Oxford .Her poems were first published when she was at university in the early 1950s...
  
  
• Joyce, James
  James Joyce
  James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
  
  
• Kavanagh, P. J.
  P. J. Kavanagh
  Patrick J. Kavanagh is an English poet, lecturer, actor and broadcaster. His father was the ITMA scriptwriter, Ted Kavanagh.He fought in the Korean War, being evacuated as result of his injuries....
  
  
• Kavanagh, Patrick
  Patrick Kavanagh
  Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
  
  
• Keyes, Sidney
  Sidney Keyes
  Sidney Arthur Kilworth Keyes was an English poet of World War II.- Early years :Keyes was born on 27 May 1922. He attended Tonbridge School for his secondary education and later, for his tertiary, the University of Oxford...
  
  
• Kinsella, Thomas
  Thomas Kinsella
  Thomas Kinsella is an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher.-Early life and work:Kinsella was born in Lucan, County Dublin. He spent much of his childhood with relatives in rural Ireland. He was educated in the Irish language at the Model School, Inchicore and the O'Connell Christian...
  
  
• Kipling, Rudyard
  Rudyard Kipling
  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
  
  
• Kirkup, James
  James Kirkup
  James Falconer Kirkup, FRSL was a prolific English poet, translator and travel writer. He was brought up in South Shields, and educated at South Shields Secondary School and Durham University. He wrote over 30 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays...
  
  
• Larkin, Philip
  Philip Larkin
  Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...
  
  
• Lawrence, D. H.
  D. H. Lawrence
  David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
  
  
• Lehmann, John
  John Lehmann
  Rudolf John Frederick Lehmann was an English poet and man of letters, and one of the foremost literary editors of the twentieth century, founding the periodicals New Writing and The London Magazine.The fourth child of journalist Rudolph Lehmann, and brother of Helen Lehmann, novelist Rosamond...
  
  
• Lerner, Lawrence
• Lewis, Alun
  Alun Lewis
  Alun Lewis , was a poet of the Anglo-Welsh school, and is regarded by many as Britain's finest Second World War poet.- Education :...
  
  
• Lewis, C. S.
  C. S. Lewis
  Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
  
  
• Lewis, Wyndham
  Wyndham Lewis
  Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English painter and author . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST...
  
  
• Logue, Christopher
  Christopher Logue
  Christopher Logue, CBE is an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. He has also written for the theatre and cinema as well as acting in a number of films. His two screenplays are Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur's Marriage...
  
  
• Lowry, Malcolm
  Malcolm Lowry
  Clarence Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel Under the Volcano, which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list.-Biography:...
  
  
• Lucie-Smith, Edward
  Edward Lucie-Smith
  John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith is a British writer, poet, art critic, curator, broadcaster and author of exhibition catalogues.-Biography:Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica, moving to the United Kingdom in 1946...
  
  
• MacBeth, George
  George MacBeth
  George Mann MacBeth was a Scottish poet and novelist. He was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire.When he was three, his family moved to Sheffield....
  
  
• MacCaig, Norman
  Norman MacCaig
  Norman MacCaig was a Scottish poet. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity.-Life:...
  
  
• MacDiarmid, Hugh
  Hugh MacDiarmid
  Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
  
  
• MacDonagh, Donagh
  Donagh MacDonagh
  Donagh MacDonagh was an Irish writer, judge, presenter, broadcaster, and playwright.-His private life:He was born in Dublin and was still a young child when his father Thomas MacDonagh, an Irish nationalist and poet, was executed in 1916.Tragedy struck again when his mother died of a heart attack...
  
  
• MacNeice, Louis
  Louis MacNeice
  Frederick Louis MacNeice CBE was an Irish poet and playwright. He was part of the generation of "thirties poets" which included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis; nicknamed "MacSpaunday" as a group — a name invented by Roy Campbell, in his Talking Bronco...
  
  
• Madge, Charles
  Charles Madge
  Charles Madge , was an English poet, journalist and sociologist, now most remembered as a founder of Mass-Observation.As a sociologist, he co-founded Mass-Observation with Tom Harrisson in 1937, an endeavour which would occupy more of his time than literature...
  
  
• Masefield, John
  John Masefield
  John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...
  
  
• McGough, Roger
  Roger McGough
  Roger Joseph McGough CBE is a well-known English performance poet. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please and records voice-overs for commercials, as well as performing his own poetry regularly...
  
  
• Mew, Charlotte
  Charlotte Mew
  Charlotte Mary Mew was an English poet, whose work spans the cusp between Victorian poetry and Modernism.She was born in Bloomsbury, London the daughter of the architect Frederick Mew, who designed Hampstead town hall and Anna Kendall. She attended Lucy Harrison's School for Girls and lectures at...
  
  
• Meynell, Alice
  Alice Meynell
  Alice Christiana Gertrude Thompson Meynell was an English writer, editor, critic, and suffragist, now remembered mainly as a poet.-Biography:...
  
  
• Michie, James
• Miles, Susan
  Susan Miles
  Susan Miles was the nom de plume of Ursula Wyllie Roberts . She was born in India, where her father was a colonel in the British military....
  
  
• Mitchell, Adrian
  Adrian Mitchell
  Adrian Mitchell FRSL was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British anti-authoritarian Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's anti-Bomb movement...
  
  
• Mitchell, Matthew
  Matthew Mitchell
  Matthew LaMont Mitchell is the current head coach for the University of Kentucky Kentucky Wildcats women's basketball team, also known as "UK Hoops".-Coaching:...
  
  
• Monro, Harold
  Harold Monro
  Harold Edward Monro was a British poet, the proprietor of the Poetry Bookshop in London which helped many famous poets bring their work before the public....
  
  
• T. Sturge Moore
• Muir, Edwin
  Edwin Muir
  Edwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....
  
  
• E. Nesbit
  E. Nesbit
  Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
  
  
• Newbolt, Henry
  Henry Newbolt
  Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH was an English poet. He is best remembered for Vitaï Lampada, a lyrical piece used for propaganda purposes during the First World War.-Background:...
  
  
• Noyes, Alfred
  Alfred Noyes
  Alfred Noyes was an English poet, best known for his ballads, "The Highwayman" and "The Barrel-Organ".-Early years:...
  
  
• Philip O'Connor
  Philip O'Connor
  Philip O'Connor was a British writer and surrealist poet, who also painted. He was one of the 'Wheatsheaf writers' of 1930s Fitzrovia...
  
  
• Moira O'Neill
  Moira O'Neill
  Moira O'Neill was the pseudonym of Agnes Shakespeare Higginson , a popular Irish-Canadian poet who wrote ballads and other verse inspired by County Antrim, where she lived at Cushendun....
  
  
• Orwell, George
  George Orwell
  Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
  
  
• Owen, Wilfred
  Wilfred Owen
  Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War...
  
  
• Herbert Palmer
  Herbert Edward Palmer
  Herbert Edward Palmer was an English poet and critic.He was born in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire and educated at Woodhouse Grove School, Birmingham University and Bonn University...
  
  
• Patten, Brian
  Brian Patten
  -Background:Born near Liverpool's docks, he attended Sefton Park School in the Smithdown Road area of Liverpool, where he was noted for his essays and greatly encouraged in his work by Harry Sutcliffe his form teacher. He left school at fifteen and began work for The Bootle Times writing a column...
  
  
• Phillpotts, Eden
  Eden Phillpotts
  Eden Phillpotts was an English author, poet and dramatist. He was born in India, educated in Plymouth, Devon, and worked as an insurance officer for 10 years before studying for the stage and eventually becoming a writer....
  
  
• Pitter, Ruth
  Ruth Pitter
  Emma Thomas "Ruth" Pitter, CBE, FRSL was a 20th century British poet.She was the first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, and was appointed a CBE in 1979 to honour her many contributions to English literature.In 1974, she was named a "Companion of Literature", the highest...
  
  
• Plomer, William
  William Plomer
  William Charles Franklyn Plomer CBE was a South African author, known as a novelist, poet and literary editor. He was educated mostly in the United Kingdom...
  
  
• Popham, Hugh
• Porter, Peter
  Peter Porter
  Peter Porter is the name of:* Peter Buell Porter , U.S. political figure and soldier* Peter A. Porter , U.S. political figure and grandson of Peter Buell Porter* Peter Porter , Australian-born British poet...
  
  
• Powys, John Cowper
  John Cowper Powys
  -Biography:Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys , who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper. He came from a family of eleven children, many of whom were also...
  
  
• Prince, F. T.
  F. T. Prince
  Frank Templeton Prince was a British poet and academic, known generally for his best-known poem Soldiers Bathing, written during the Second World War in 1942, which has been frequently included in anthologies....
  
  
• Pudney, John
  John Pudney
  John Sleigh Pudney was a British journalist and writer. He was known for short stories, poetry, non-fiction and children's fiction .-Education:...
  
  
• Raine, Kathleen
  Kathleen Raine
  Kathleen Jessie Raine was a British poet, critic, and scholar writing in particular on William Blake, W. B. Yeats and Thomas Taylor. Known for her interest in various forms of spirituality, most prominently Platonism and Neoplatonism, she was a founder member of the Temenos Academy.-Life:Raine was...
  
  
• Read, Herbert
  Herbert Read
  Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
  
  
• Redgrove, Peter
  Peter Redgrove
  Peter William Redgrove was a prolific and widely respected British poet, who also wrote works with his second wife Penelope Shuttle on menstruation and women's health, novels and plays.-Life:...
  
  
• Reed, Henry
• Reeves, James
  James Reeves
  John Morris Reeves was a British writer known as James Reeves principally known for his poetry and contributions to children's literature and the literature of collected traditional songs.-Life:...
  
  
• Rendall, Robert
  Robert Rendall
  Robert Rendall spent most of life in Kirkwall, Orkney. He spent much of his spare time in marine research and writing poetry.He compiled a catalogue of the marine mollusca of Orkney...
  
  
• Rickword, Edgell
  Edgell Rickword
  John Edgell Rickword, MC was an English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor. He became one of the leading communist intellectuals active in the 1930s.-Early life:He was born in Colchester, Essex...
  
  
• Roberts, Michael
  Michael Roberts
  Michael Roberts may refer to:*Michael Roberts , British poet, writer, critic and broadcaster*Michael Roberts , British historian...
  
  
• Rosenberg, Isaac
  Isaac Rosenberg
  Isaac Rosenberg was an English poet of the First World War who was considered to be one of the greatest of all English war poets...
  
  
• Ross, Alan
  Alan Ross
  Alan John Ross, , was a British poet, writer and editor. He was born in Calcutta, India, where he spent the first seven years of his life...
  
  
• Rowse, A. L.
  A. L. Rowse
  Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...
  
  
• Sackville-West, Vita
  Vita Sackville-West
  The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
  
  
• 'Sagittarius
  Sagittarius
  Sagittarius may refer to:Astrology* Sagittarius , a Zodiac sign.Astronomy:* Sagittarius , corresponding to the astrological sign...
  
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• Sassoon, Siegfried
  Siegfried Sassoon
  Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...
  
  
• Scannell, Vernon
  Vernon Scannell
  Vernon Scannell was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport.-Personal life:Vernon Scannell was born in 1922 in Spilsby, Lincolnshire...
  
  
• Scovell, E. J.
  E. J. Scovell
  Edith Joy Scovell was an English poet. She was born in Sheffield, and studied in Westmorland and at Somerville College, Oxford. She married the ecologist Charles Sutherland Elton in 1937. She also translated work of Giovanni Pascoli...
  
  
• Seymour-Smith, Martin
  Martin Seymour-Smith
  Martin Roger Seymour-Smith was a British poet, literary critic, biographer and astrologer.Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Oxford University where he was editor of Isis...
  
  
• Shanks, Edward
  Edward Shanks
  Edward Richard Buxton Shanks was an English writer, known as a war poet of World War I, then as an academic and journalist, and literary critic and biographer. He also wrote some science fiction....
  
  
• Silkin, Jon
  Jon Silkin
  Jon Silkin was a British poet.-Early life:Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Jewish immigrant family and named after Jon Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga, and attended Wycliffe College and Dulwich College During the Second World War he was one of the children evacuated from London ; he remembered that...
  
  
• Sillitoe, Alan
  Alan Sillitoe
  Alan Sillitoe was an English writer and one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s.. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied.- Biography :...
  
  
• Sisson, C. H.
  C. H. Sisson
  Charles Hubert Sisson CH was a British writer, best known as a poet and translator.-Life:...
  
  
• Sitwell, Edith
  Edith Sitwell
  Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...
  
  
• Sitwell, Osbert
  Osbert Sitwell
  Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet, was an English writer. His elder sister was Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell and his younger brother was Sir Sacheverell Sitwell; like them he devoted his life to art and literature....
  
  
• Smith, Iain Crichton
  Iain Crichton Smith
  Iain Crichton Smith was a Scottish man of letters, writing in both English and Scottish Gaelic, and a prolific author in both languages...
  
  
• Smith, Stevie
  Stevie Smith
  Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith was an English poet and novelist.-Life:Stevie Smith, born Florence Margaret Smith in Kingston upon Hull, was the second daughter of Ethel and Charles Smith. Contemporary Women Poets...
  
  
• Spencer, Bernard
  Bernard Spencer
  Charles Bernard Spencer was an English poet, translator, and editor.He was born in Madras, India and educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Marlborough he knew John Betjeman and Louis MacNeice; at Oxford Stephen Spender, and he also came across W. H. Auden. He...
  
  
• Spender, Stephen
  Stephen Spender
  Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work...
  
  
• Squire, J. C.
  J. C. Squire
  Sir John Collings Squire was a British poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor of the post-World War I period.- Biography :...
  
  
• Stephens, James
  James Stephens (author)
  James Stephens was an Irish novelist and poet.James Stephens wrote many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humor and lyricism...
  
  
• Strong, L. A. G.
• Stuart, Muriel
  Muriel Stuart
  Muriel Stuart The daughter of a Scottish barrister, was a poet, particularly concerned with the topic of sexual politics, though she first wrote poems about World War I. She later gave up poetry writing; her last work was published in the 1930s...
  
  
• Summers, Hal
• Synge, J. M.
• Tessimond, A. S. J.
  A. S. J. Tessimond
  Arthur Seymour John Tessimond was an English poet.He went to Charterhouse School, but ran away at age 16...
  
  
• Thomas, Dylan
  Dylan Thomas
  Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
  
  
• Thomas, R. S.
  R. S. Thomas
  Ronald Stuart Thomas was a Welsh poet and Anglican clergyman, noted for his nationalism, spirituality and deep dislike of the anglicisation of Wales...
  
  
• Thwaite, Anthony
  Anthony Thwaite
  Anthony Simon Thwaite, OBE, is an English poet and writer. He is married to the writer Ann Thwaite. He was awarded the OBE in 1992, for services to poetry. He was mainly brought up in Yorkshire and currently lives in Norfolk....
  
  
• Tomlinson, Charles
  Charles Tomlinson
  Alfred Charles Tomlinson, CBE is a British poet and translator, and also an academic and artist. He was born and raised in Penkhull in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.-Life:...
  
  
• Tonks, Rosemary
  Rosemary Tonks
  Rosemary Tonks is an English author and poet. She disappeared from the public eye after her conversion to Fundamentalist Christianity in the 1970s, and nothing is known about her life since.- Early life :...
  
  
• Wain, John
  John Wain
  John Barrington Wain was an English poet, novelist, and critic, associated with the literary group "The Movement". For most of his life, Wain worked as a freelance journalist and author, writing and reviewing for newspapers and the radio. He seems to have married in 1947, since C. S...
  
  
• Walcott, Derek
  Derek Walcott
  Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
  
  
• Waley, Arthur
  Arthur Waley
  Arthur David Waley CH, CBE was an English orientalist and sinologist.-Life:Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of the economist David Frederick Schloss...
  
  
• Watkins, Vernon
  Vernon Watkins
  Vernon Phillips Watkins , was a British poet, and a translator and painter. He was a close friend of Dylan Thomas, who described him as "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English"....
  
  
• Wellesley, Dorothy
• Wickham, Anna
  Anna Wickham
  Anna Wickham was the pseudonym of Edith Alice Mary Harper , a British poet with strong Australian connections. She is remembered as a modernist figure and feminist writer, though one not able to command sustained critical attention in her lifetime...
  
  
• Williams, Hugo
  Hugo Williams
  Hugo Williams is a British poet, journalist and travel writer. His full name is Hugh Mordaunt Vyner Williams He is the son of actor Hugh Williams and the model and actress Margaret Vyner, who co-wrote some upper-middle-class comedies in the late 1950s...
  
  
• Wolfe, Humbert
  Humbert Wolfe
  Humbert Wolfe CB CBE , was an Italian-born English poet, man of letters and civil servant, from a Jewish family background, his father, Martin Wolff of German descent and his mother, Consuela, née Terraccini, Italian...
  
  
• Wordsworth, Elizabeth
  Elizabeth Wordsworth
  Dame Elizabeth Wordsworth was the great-niece of the poet William Wordsworth. She was the daughter of Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, and the sister of John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury and Christopher Wordsworth, a liturgical scholar.Educated at home, she learned several modern...
  
  
• Yeats, W. B.
• Young, Andrew
  Andrew Young (poet)
  Andrew John Young was a Scottish poet and clergyman. His status as a poet was recognised quite late and he received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1952.-Life:...
  
  
• Young, Francis Brett
  Francis Brett Young
  Francis Brett Young was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and composer.-Life:Brett Young was born in Halesowen, Worcestershire. He schooled first at a private school in Sutton Coldfield...