Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)
Teoksen Letters from Iceland tekijä
Tietoja tekijästä
Born in Belfast and raised in Carrickfergus, MacNeice was the son of an Anglican clergyman who became a bishop. His education in English schools and Oxford University made him ill at ease with his Puritan upbringing, but it never caused him to lose his sense of northern Irish roots. At Oxford, näytä lisää MacNeice became friends with Stephen Spender and later, W. H. Auden, with whom he collaborated on "Letters from Iceland" (1937). After graduating with a double first, MacNeice accepted a lectureship in the classics at Birmingham University and, after the traumatic elopement of his first wife, at Bedford College of the University of London. He joined the BBC as scriptwriter and producer in 1941 and remained with it for the remainder of his career. He also did an admired translation of Aeschylus's "Agamemnon" and the well-known book "The Poetry of W. B. Yeats" (1941). MacNeice defended his own poetry and that of Auden, Spender, and C. Day Lewis in his book "Modern Poetry" (1938). There he called for an "impure poetry" that would react against the giants of the previous generation by embracing the partisanship that he missed in W. B. Yeats and involvement with life that he found lacking in T. S. Eliot, both of whom had otherwise influenced him. While engaged with personal and political issues of the 1930's, MacNeice maintained a more skeptical stance than many of his contemporaries. His best verse---such as "Valediction" or "Bagpipe Music"---brings wit and strong rhythms to bear on contemporary life and often harks back to scenes of his youth. After joining the BBC, he also wrote more than 150 scripts, of which a dozen radio dramas have been published. An autobiography, "The Strings Are False," was published posthumously in 1966. During his lifetime, MacNeice was overshadowed by Auden, but in recent years, reevaluation of his work has regarded him as a major literary figure. (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän
Tekijän teokset
Poems, 1925-1940 8 kappaletta
Springboard 2 kappaletta
Eighty-five poems 1 kappale
Sunday Morning 1 kappale
The Last Ditch. Poems 1 kappale
Oxford poetry, 1929 1 kappale
“Bagpipe Music” 1 kappale
ルイ・マクニース詩集 1 kappale
秋の日記 1 kappale
Associated Works
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 4th Edition, Volume 2 (1979) — Avustaja — 250 kappaletta
Goethe's Faust, Parts I & II: An Abridged Version (1951) — Kääntäjä, eräät painokset — 158 kappaletta
Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath (2007) — Avustaja — 151 kappaletta
Great Irish Writing: The Best from the Bell (Classic Irish Fiction) (1978) — Avustaja — 21 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Kanoninen nimi
- MacNeice, Louis
- Virallinen nimi
- MacNeice, Frederick Louis
- Syntymäaika
- 1907-09-12
- Kuolinaika
- 1963-09-03
- Hautapaikka
- Carrowdore's Church of Ireland, Ards, Ireland
- Sukupuoli
- male
- Kansalaisuus
- Ireland (birth)
- Syntymäpaikka
- Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
- Kuolinpaikka
- London, England, UK
- Asuinpaikat
- Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK
London, England, UK - Koulutus
- Sherborne School, Dorset, England, UK
Marlborough College, Wiltshire, England, UK
Oxford University (Merton College) - Ammatit
- poet
playwright
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Autumn Journal: A Poem (Faber Poetry) Tekijä: Louis MacNeice
Leaving me wondering what I just read, a melancholic rendition of his childhood and living through this time period. It becomes bizarre to read as one know the context of what happens in the following years throughout Europe and the world.
From 16 August to 22 December, this has been a four month journey. And a bit of a slog (610 pages). The first 1/3 was by far the most interesting:
- Poems (1935)
- from: Out of the Picture (1937)
- from: Letters from Iceland (1937)
- The Earth Compels (1938)
- Autumn Journal (1939)
From here – almost half the book – until the final 1/6, there was little of interest and very little memorable. Coincidentally, this coincides with MacNeice joining the BBC.
- Plant and Phantom (1941)
- Springboard (1944)
- Holes in the Sky (1948)
- from: Collected Poems (1949)
- Ten Burnt Offerings (1952)
- Autumn Sequel (1954)
- Visitations (1957)
The final part (1/6) see him regain his voice:
- Solstices (1961)
- The Burning Perch (1963)
(There are an additional two hundred pages of appendices: poems from pre-university and undergraduate days, plus some others, a some textual notes.)
The early poems benefit from his early life experiences, WWII, and the breakdown of his marriage as source material. He's also experimenting with forms. Thereafter, he doesn't seem to develop much, and he becomes stuck in this Oxford classics world – a problem that recurs today with a certain element of society.
I was surprised at MacNeice's seeming inability to extend his interests, even to explore – a kind of absence of curiosity. The poems are mainly descriptions of what surrounds him and, frankly, not very poetic.
This is clearly a solid collection of MacNeice's poems, so five stars for that. In terms of quality and content, I found little of interest or particularly memorable; so two stars. Overall, three stars.… (lisätietoja)
- Poems (1935)
- from: Out of the Picture (1937)
- from: Letters from Iceland (1937)
- The Earth Compels (1938)
- Autumn Journal (1939)
From here – almost half the book – until the final 1/6, there was little of interest and very little memorable. Coincidentally, this coincides with MacNeice joining the BBC.
- Plant and Phantom (1941)
- Springboard (1944)
- Holes in the Sky (1948)
- from: Collected Poems (1949)
- Ten Burnt Offerings (1952)
- Autumn Sequel (1954)
- Visitations (1957)
The final part (1/6) see him regain his voice:
- Solstices (1961)
- The Burning Perch (1963)
(There are an additional two hundred pages of appendices: poems from pre-university and undergraduate days, plus some others, a some textual notes.)
The early poems benefit from his early life experiences, WWII, and the breakdown of his marriage as source material. He's also experimenting with forms. Thereafter, he doesn't seem to develop much, and he becomes stuck in this Oxford classics world – a problem that recurs today with a certain element of society.
I was surprised at MacNeice's seeming inability to extend his interests, even to explore – a kind of absence of curiosity. The poems are mainly descriptions of what surrounds him and, frankly, not very poetic.
This is clearly a solid collection of MacNeice's poems, so five stars for that. In terms of quality and content, I found little of interest or particularly memorable; so two stars. Overall, three stars.… (lisätietoja)
Thoughts during the autumn of peace before the impending and inevitable WWII post Munich, which looms over the piece. Observed and told with empathy, kindness, and lyricism. With the Nazis promising to make Germany great again, the echoes in our own time are obvious. Autumn and war.
What a strange and weird travel book about Auden and MacNeice’s three month’s of travel around Iceland, mainly by bus and pony, in 1936; part letters home, part poetry, a little fact and quotes from earlier writers about Iceland, and a diary section written by a cod spinster.
As Auden says in his first “Letter to Lord Byron”:
Every exciting letter has enclosures,
And so shall this - a bunch of photographs,
Some out of focus, some with wrong exposures,
Press cuttings, gossip, maps, statistics, graphs;
I don’t intend to do the thing by halves,
I’m going to be very up to date indeed.
It is a collage that you’re going to read.
It might have been considered a bit of a rum do in its time, it now reads as humorously eccentric. It is fascinating too for its view of a historic Iceland that has disappeared in the 80 odd years since it was written (although Auden bemoans the move to towns from the countryside), for mentions of German tourists in search of the Aryan homeland and fleeting references to the Spanish Civil War, which started whilst Auden and MacNeice were in Iceland. The book ends with a humorous versified joint Last Will & Testament, which surprised me with its name dropping - John Betjeman may be expected, but Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess (both later revealed as Russian spies) were a surprise.
Overall, an enjoyable but not special book, with MacNeice’s letters from Hetty to Nancy are the most interesting reads, and Auden’s Letters to Lord Byron also working well.… (lisätietoja)
As Auden says in his first “Letter to Lord Byron”:
Every exciting letter has enclosures,
And so shall this - a bunch of photographs,
Some out of focus, some with wrong exposures,
Press cuttings, gossip, maps, statistics, graphs;
I don’t intend to do the thing by halves,
I’m going to be very up to date indeed.
It is a collage that you’re going to read.
It might have been considered a bit of a rum do in its time, it now reads as humorously eccentric. It is fascinating too for its view of a historic Iceland that has disappeared in the 80 odd years since it was written (although Auden bemoans the move to towns from the countryside), for mentions of German tourists in search of the Aryan homeland and fleeting references to the Spanish Civil War, which started whilst Auden and MacNeice were in Iceland. The book ends with a humorous versified joint Last Will & Testament, which surprised me with its name dropping - John Betjeman may be expected, but Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess (both later revealed as Russian spies) were a surprise.
Overall, an enjoyable but not special book, with MacNeice’s letters from Hetty to Nancy are the most interesting reads, and Auden’s Letters to Lord Byron also working well.… (lisätietoja)
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