Cecil Day Lewis

Background

He was born on April 27, 1904, in Ballintogher, County Laois, Republic of Ireland.

When Cecil was 4, his mother died and the family moved to England.

Education

He was educated at Sherborne School on a scholarship and was an exhibitioner at Wadham College, Oxford.

Career

He taught at school until 1935 but thereafter devoted himself mainly to poetry and the aesthetics of poetry.

The compressions, the intentional banality, and the mocking vulgarity of his poetry enabled him to deal directly with his era. Collected Poems (1954) contains the most important verse that Day Lewis published over a period of 25 years.

He also translated the Georgics and Aeneid of Vergil into English verse and wrote A Hope for Poetry (1934), The Poetic Image (1947), and other criticism of poetry.

The Poet's Way of Knowledge appeared in 1959 and his autobiography The Buried Day in 1960.

Throughout his career Lewis published poetry, an increasing amount of criticism, and detective stories signed Nicholas Blake.

In 1964-1965 he was the Charles Eliot Norton professor of poetry at Harvard.

In 1964 he edited the amended edition of one of his spiritual ancestors-The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen.

Later poetry collections include Selected Poems (1967) and The Whispering Roots (1970).

In 1968 Lewis was appointed poet laureate.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Revolution in Writing

    (Contains three important essays: "The Revolution in Liter...)

  • Head Of A Traveler

    (Pocket Books #742, 1950. Stated first printing in VG+ con...)

  • The Complete Poems of C. Day Lewis

    (C. Day Lewis (1904-1972) was one of the leading young poe...)

  • The Otterbury Incident
  • Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil (1952-06-26)

Membership

After 1962 he was a member of the Arts Council; he was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts.

Connections

Friend:

W.W. H. Auden

References

• Cecil Day-Lewis: An English Literary Life