Lewis, Alun. (1915 - 1944).
L i f e
- born in Wales x but: rarely specifically Welsh in his work
- entered the army shortly after the outbreak of WW II
- killed by a pistol shot when on duty in Burma (accident/suicide)
W o r k
- a war poet x but: the most assertively civilian of all the WW II writers
- author of reluctant, deracinated, restless poems
Raiders’ Dawn (1942):
- includes mostly poems about the army life in English training camps
- pays tribute to Edward Thomas and the landscapes associated with him
> “All Day It Has Rained”:
- agonises about the tedium of life in an encampment in rain and wind
- a man passionately loving his home and wife becomes dumb and indifferent in the confines of the camp
Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets (1945, posthumously):
- includes mostly poems written after his leaving for military duty in the East
- in three parts: concerned respectively with his his tense waiting in England, his voyage to the East, and his coming to terms with India life
> “Goodbye”:
- recalls the last few hours he spent with his wife before leaving for India
Quote
"All day it has rained, and we on the edge of the moors / Have sprawled in our bell-tents, moody and dull as boors, / Groundsheets and blankets spread on the muddy ground / And from the first grey wakening we have found / No refuge from the skirmishing fine rain."
From "All Day It Has Rained" (1941).
Basics
(Photo: Channel 4).
-
Author
Alun Lewis. (1915 - 1944). British. -
Work
Poet. Author of Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets (1945). -
Genre
War poetry.
Literature
Abrams, Meyer Howard, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.
Barnard, Robert. Stručné dějiny anglické literatury. Praha: Brána, 1997.
Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
Coote, Stephen. The Penguin Short History of English Literature. London: Penguin, 1993.
Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946.
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. New York: Clarendon Press, 1994.