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Poet
T. S. Eliot
B. 1888 D. 1965
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) as a poet and critic came to define the modernist movement and still dominates the literary landscape of the last century. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a prominent local family. He attended Harvard…
Special Collection
Poem
‘A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,…
Poem
Four Quartets – Extract - T. S. Eliot
I In my beginning is my end. In succession Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new building, old…
Poem
The Waste Land Part I – The Burial of the Dead - T. S. Eliot
I. The Burial of the Dead April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little…
Poem
The Waste Land Part II – A Game of Chess - T. S. Eliot
II. A Game of Chess The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, Glowed on the marble, where the glass Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines From which a golden Cupidon peeped out (Another hid his eyes…
Poem
The Waste Land Part III – The Fire Sermon - T. S. Eliot
III. The Fire Sermon The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed. Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my…
Poem
The Waste Land Part IV – Death by Water - T. S. Eliot
IV. Death by Water Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep seas swell And the profit and loss. A current under sea Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell He…
Poem
The Waste Land Part V – What the Thunder said - T. S. Eliot
V. What the Thunder said After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over…
Poem
‘The Missing’
For BBC 100: T.S. Eliot Prize Winning Reading
‘The Missing’ - Roger Robinson
As if their bodies became lighter, ten of those seated in front pews began to float, and then to lie down as if on a bed. Then pass down the aisle, as if on a conveyor belt of pure air,…
Keystone
Poet
Tim Liardet
B. 1959
Tim Liardet was born in London in 1959 and educated at the University of York and characterises his early route to poetry as “…long, and circuitous, fraught with the exactions of wrong jobs, self-doubt and the occasional suggestion of a…
Poet
Paul Muldoon
B. 1951
Paul Muldoon is one of Ireland’s most outstanding contemporary poets, and one of the most admired English-language poets anywhere in the world. He was born into a Catholic family in 1951 in a predominantly Protestant region of Portadown, County Armagh…
Poet
Edgell Rickword
B. 1898 D. 1982
Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) is best known as the influential editor of journals such as Calendar of Modern Letters and The Left Review and was a key figure in establishing radical criticism in the wake of the First World War. However,…
Poet
W N Herbert
B. 1961
W. N. Herbert was born in Dundee in 1961 and educated at Brasenose, Oxford, where he published his thesis on Hugh MacDiarmid (To Circumjack MacDiarmid, OUP, 1992). He is currently Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Herbert…
Poet
Raymond Antrobus
B. 1986
Antrobus has many accolades to his name, including the Ted Hughes Award, Sunday Times / University of Warwick Young Writer of The Year Award, and Guardian Poetry Book of the Year 2018.
Poet
Joelle Taylor
B. 1967
Joelle Taylor is a poet, playwright & author. She became the UK Slam champion in 2000 and founded SLAMbassadors, the UK national youth Slam championship, where she served as artistic director & coach 2001 to 2018. Published works include Songs…
Poet
Anne Carson
B. 1950
Ann Carson was born in Canada and studied at the University of Toronto. An academic and scholar, she has taught at several institutions, including McGill and the University of Michigan. She is an expert in ancient Greece, classical and Hellenic…