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THE WAR POETRY WEB SITE www.warpoetry.co.uk
Lives of war poets of the First World War
These brief outlines are taken from
Minds at War - the Poetry and Experience of the First World War

Similar (though usually shorter) notes on most of these poets can be found in Out in the Dark.
Both of these books, but especially Minds at War, have many more pages about the most important of the war poets. Additional information includes extracts from personal letters, diaries and autobiographies. Minds at War contains 75 brief biographies of poets and other writers and 22 of important figures of the First World War

Main Index
First World Warpoets and poetry

Minds at WarThe classic poems of First World War and more
Out in the DarkAnthology of First World War poetry recommended for students and the general reader
Poetry about the Second World War
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Poetry for Remembrance Day
Vietnam War Poetry

Index to Lives of War Poets
Click on a name to see information

Vera Brittain
Rupert Brooke
Eleanor Farjeon
Gilbert Frankau
Robert Graves
Julian Grenfell
Ivor Gurney
Thomas Hardy
Rudyard Kipling
John McCrae
Henry Newbolt
Robert Nichols
Wilfred Owen
John Oxenham
Jessie Pope
Herbert Read
Isaac Rosenberg
Siegfried Sassoon
Owen Seaman
Alan Seeger
Charles Sorley
Muriel Stuart
Edward Thomas
Katharine Tynan
A G West

More about Rupert Brooke
More about Wilfred Owen
RUPERT CHAWNER BROOKE, 1887-1915.
Georgian poet. Born at Rugby. Educated at Rugby School and King's College, Cambridge. He was an atheist and active Socialist.
He was a friend of Edward Marsh and worked with him to prepare and promote the first Georgian Anthology of poetry.
After travelling in Germany, and, following his nervous breakdown he went on a long tour to recuperate, taking in the USA, Canada, Honolulu, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, and Tahiti.
After hesitation about what course of action to take at the start of the First World War he joined the navy. He was a witness at the siege of Antwerp before writing his famous set of five sonnets called 1914. Though he had seen the devastation and suffering created by the war he kept it all at an emotional distance from himself, denying the realities of war.
He had a deeply confused personality - given to both ecstatic enthusiasm and suicidal doubt.
Following a mosquito bite he died of acute blood poisoning on board ship on his way to Gallipoli, and was buried on the Greek Island of Skyros.
Minds at War and Out in the Dark contain all five of Brooke's 1914 war sonnets, plus his sombre and realistic last poem, Soon to Die.
Minds at War contains a further thirteen and a half pages of discussion of Brooke's ideas, and extracts from his letters which reveal something of the way his mind worked, and the origins of some of the ideas in his sonnets.
There are five pages of information about Brooke, and extracts from his letters in Out in the Dark.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
ELEANOR FARJEON, 1881-1965.
Born in London. Well known as an author of children's stories.
She was a close personal friend of Helen and Edward Thomas in the last few years of his life. She loved Edward, but knew that expressing her feelings to him would mean the immediate end of their friendship. They often visited each other and went on long country walks together. She typed his poems for him and submitted them, on his behalf, under the pseudonym of Edward Eastaway, to various publications.
Helen was aware of Eleanor's feelings towards Edward and was perfectly content with the situation, believing that it might help to make Edward a little happier.
There are two of her poems in Minds at War and one in Out in the Dark. The poem that is common to both books is "Now that you, too" which is a moving poem about saying goodbye to Edward Thomas for the last time.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
JULIAN GRENFELL, 1888-1915.
Educated at Eton, and Balliol College, Oxford. He joined the army in 1910. He seemed to take a psychopathic joy in killing people. His poem Into Battle is said to be the most anthologised poem of the First World War.
He died of wounds on 30th April, 1915, a few days after sending his poem to The Times.
Into Battle appears in both Minds at War and Out in the Dark.
IVOR GURNEY, 1890-1937.
Born in Gloucester. Educated at King's School Gloucester and the Royal College of Music. He wrote poetry and music from before the war.
He volunteered to fight and was initially turned down because of his poor eyesight. He was gassed and wounded and returned to Britain.
Mental illness developed. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1922. He was committed to mental hospital where he continued to write poetry and compose - sometimes believing that he was still taking part in the war. He died of tuberculosis.
Three of his poems appear in Minds at War and two in Out in the Dark.
RUDYARD KIPLING, 1865-1936.
Born in Bombay. As a small child he was sent to England (Southsea) to be educated. He was desperately miserable for some years. He was principally educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho!
Before the war he favoured re-armament. He was vigorous in his opposition to Germany. After his only son was killed in the Battle of the Loos,in September 1915, Kipling's confident and simple verse faltered briefly.
He is best known for his classic children's books - especially the Jungle Books (1894, 1895). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
During the First World War he was Director of Propaganda to the British Colonies.
In Minds at War there are six of his war poems, plus an extract from A Song of the English. In Out in the Dark there are four full poems and two extracts.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
HENRY NEWBOLT, SIR, 1862-1924.
Born in Bilston, Staffordshire. Educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Barrister, then professional poet.
Keenly interested in naval matters he wrote the official British naval history of the war. Best selling imperialist poet. Establishment literary figure.
There are seven examples of his fighting verse in Minds at War and five in Out in the Dark.
WILFRED EDWARD SALTER OWEN, 1893 - 1918.
Born Oswestry, Shropshire. Educated at Birkenhead Institute and Shrewsbury Technical College.
From the age of nineteen Owen wanted to be a poet and immersed himself in poetry, being especially impressed by Keats and Shelley. He wrote almost no poetry of importance until he saw action in France in 1917.
He was deeply attached to his mother to whom most of his 664 letters are addressed. (She saved every one.) He was a committed Christian and became lay assistant to the vicar of Dunsden near Reading 1911-1913 - teaching Bible classes and leading prayer meetings - as well as visiting parishioners and helping in other ways.
From 1913 to 1915 he worked as a language tutor in France.
He felt pressured by the propaganda to become a soldier and volunteered on 21st October 1915. He spent the last day of 1916 in a tent in France joining the Second Manchesters. He was full of boyish high spirits at being a soldier.
Within a week he had been transported to the front line in a cattle wagon and was "sleeping" 70 or 80 yards from a heavy gun which fired every minute or so. He was soon wading miles along trenches two feet deep in water. Within a few days he was experiencing gas attacks and was horrified by the stench of the rotting dead; his sentry was blinded, his company then slept out in deep snow and intense frost till the end of January. That month was a profound shock for him: he now understood the meaning of war. "The people of England needn't hope. They must agitate," he wrote home. (See his poems The Sentry and Exposure.)
He escaped bullets until the last week of the war, but he saw a good deal of front-line action: he was blown up, concussed and suffered shell-shock. At Craiglockhart, the psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, he met Siegfried Sassoon who inspired him to develop his war poetry.
He was sent back to the trenches in September, 1918 and in October won the Military Cross by seizing a German machine-gun and using it to kill a number of Germans.
On 4th November he was shot and killed near the village of Ors. The news of his death reached his parents home as the Armistice bells were ringing on 11 November.
Owen is widely accepted as the greatest writer of war poetry in the English language.
There are 27 of his war poems in Minds at War and 19 in Out in the Dark. Both anthologies contain additional information, comment, and extracts from his letters.
More about Wilfred Owen, including pictures.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
OWEN SEAMAN, SIR, 1861-1936
Educated at Shrewsbury and Clare College, Cambridge. Professor of Literature at Newcastle (1890). Editor of Punch (1906-1932).
He was encouraged to write for the war effort by the Government's Secret Bureau for Propaganda. His verse is a clear, competent call to support official Government policy.
Four of his poems are included in Minds at War.
SIEGFRIED LORRAINE SASSOON, 1886-1967
Born in Kent. Educated at Marlborough, and Clare College, Cambridge. He was a keen sportsman, loving cricket and foxhunting.
He was the first war poet to volunteer - 3 August 1914. Disillusion set in slowly. His first critical poem, In the Pink, was written in February 1916. He was the only English disillusioned First World War poet who made an effort to be politically effective.
As a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers he met and became a friend of Robert Graves. He became wildly angry at the death of one of his friends and fought recklessly, winning the Military Cross. He was wounded in the shoulder and later was shot in the head accidentally by one of his own men. The wound was a graze, but serious enough to put him out of the action for good from July 1918.
It was when convalescing from his shoulder wound in the summer of 1917 that he made his famous protest about the war. As a result of this he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. There he met and encouraged Wilfred Owen with his poetry.
He began to feel guilty about not fighting alongside his old comrades and returned to active service in November 1917.
After the war he became literary editor of the Herald, returned to his country pursuits and wrote a number of autobiographical books. He married and had one son. He became a Roman Catholic in 1957.
Second only to Owen as a war poet, he recorded the war and his developing responses with uncompromising honesty.
Thirty three of his war poems are to be found in Minds at War, twenty-seven in Out in the Dark.
There are seven pages of additional information and extracts from his diaries in Out in the Dark.
In Minds at War there are twelve additional pages about Sassoon, including Arnold Bennet's response to Sassoon's defiance of military authority.
Both anthologies include Sassoon's famous statement, In Defiance of Military Authority.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
EDWARD THOMAS, 1878-1917
He was born in London and educated at St Paul's School, and Lincoln College, Oxford.
His first book was published when he was eighteen and in the next eighteen years he wrote over 30 books and thousands of articles and reviews. In spite of his output he was treated meanly by publishers and was often troubled by a shortage of money.
He was a friend of Gordon Bottomley, Walter de la Mare, Lascelles Abercrombie, Harold Monro, Eleanor Farjeon, the Meynells and friend and spokesman for the American poet, Robert Frost.
It was Frost who encouraged Thomas to write poetry. Starting in December 1914 and finishing in December 1916 Thomas wrote 144 poems - mainly about the English countryside, weather, the seasons - all of them written in England, in a straight, unadorned style - a number of them darkly influenced by the war.
His poetry was rejected as fast as it was submitted to newspapers and periodicals, using his pseudonym, Edward Eastaway.
He was a shy, self -effacing man who suffered from depression and came close to suicide. Having volunteered for the front, after eighteen months training, he went to France with the Royal Garrison Artillery at the end of January 1917. He was killed ten weeks later, on 9th April, leaving a wife and three children.
The gentleness, subtle melancholy, plainness and direct honesty of Thomas's verse is both moving and impressive.
There are ten of his poems in Minds at War and thirteen in Out in the Dark.
VERA MARY BRITTAIN, 1893-1970.
Born in Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, and grew up in Macclesfield and Buxton.
Her Testament of Youth is one of the outstanding biographies of the First World War.
She felt compelled to play a part, and worked as a VAD nurse in England, France (where her first task was looking after wounded German prisoners) and Malta. She was moved to the verge of a nervous breakdown by her experiences in the war and the loss of a close friend, her fiancé and brother.
She wrote her Testament of Youth to record the effect of the war on her generation. Her interest in politics sprang from a desire to understand the causes of the war which, in turn, she hoped might help to prevent a recurrence of such a human catastrophe. She continued her biography in Testament of Experience.
As a pacifist, supporter of the League of Nations, and feminist she wrote prolifically and lectured in Britain, the USA and Canada.There are five of Vera Brittain's war poems in Minds at War and two in Out in the Dark.
There are brief extracts from Vera Brittain's biography, Testament of Youth in both books.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
GILBERT FRANKAU, 1884-1952.
Educated at Eton. Worked in the family tobacco business. Best-selling novelist (World Without End, 1943).
Volunteered at the start of the war. He fought at Loos, Ypres and on the Somme. In spite of the bitter tone of some of his poetry he was an intense patriot and supporter of the war throughout. - At his own request, perhaps realising that he could not suppress the trauma much longer, he was transferred from the front line to staff work at the end of 1916 - propaganda in Italy.
His brother, Jack, was killed in November 1917. He was invalided out of the war in February 1918 with shell-shock.
He served in the RAF as a Squadron Leader in World War II. He married three times.
There are three full poems by Frankau and one extract from a poem in Minds at War, and one of his poems in Out in the Dark.
ROBERT VON RANKE GRAVES, 1895-1985.
Born in London. Educated at Charterhouse. His mother was German. As a child he spent five summer holidays at his grandfather's home in Germany.
Went straight from school into the Royal Welch Fusiliers at the age of nineteen. He became a friend of Sassoon, Nichols and Owen. In July 1916 shrapnel from an exploding shell pierced his lungs and he was invalided out of the front line with major injuries and shell-shock.
His autobiography Goodbye to All That (1929) is the most racily readable personal account of the First World War.
Highly regarded as a love poet. During his second marriage (to his loving and long-suffering wife Beryl) and as he grew older, he developed amorous, but doomed relationships with a series of attractive young women. He was generous to a fault and commercially naive.
Oxford Professor of Poetry 1961-1966. His historical novels I Claudius and Claudius the God were best sellers.
He lived most of his life in Majorca. During his life he suppressed most of his war poems, probably because he was not happy with the quality of them.
There are ten of his poems in Minds at War. Several have not been in print for over half a century.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
THOMAS HARDY, 1840-1928.
Born at Higher-Bockhampton near Dorchester. Educated at a private school in Dorchester.
His pre-war poetry was admired by Sassoon. Wessex Poems (1898), Poems of Past and Present (1901), Times Laughing Stock (1909) and the dramatic epic of the Napoleonic Wars, The Dynasts (1904 - 1908).
Best known as a classic novelist. His novels include Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891).
He staunchly supported the war until it was over. A member of the Fight for Right Movement and the Secret Bureau for Propaganda.
Nine of Hardy's war poems are to be found in both Minds at War and Out in the Dark.
JOHN McCRAE, 1872-1918.
Born in Canada. Educated at McGill University. Although a doctor originally he fought on the Western Front in the artillery. In Flanders Field, one of the most famous poems of the war, was written during the Second Battle of Ypres.
He was put in charge of the No 3 General Hospital at Boulogne before being appointed Medical consultant to all the British Armies in France. He died of pneumonia, on 28th January, 1918, before taking up the appointment.
In Flanders Fields appears in both Minds at War and Out in the Dark.
ROBERT NICHOLS, 1893-1944.
Educated Winchester and Oxford. He was in the trenches for only a few weeks before being invalided out with shell-shock and syphilis in 1915, never to return. Worked for Ministries of Labour and Information.
He was a friend of Brooke and Sassoon. Georgian poet.
Nichols' intense poem, Noon, is in both anthologies.
JOHN OXENHAM, 1852-1941
Popular novelist and poet. During the First World War his poetry sold over a million volumes, showing him to be the most popular poet at that time. His hymn, For the Men at the Front, is reputed to have sold eight million copies.
Oxenham's support for the war is expressed in terms of Christian idealism and total faith in God's Divine Love and Purpose. Every soldier was sure of his place in Heaven.
For the Men at the Front is in both anthologies.
There are three further poems and two extracts in Minds at War, and one more Oxenham poem and an extract in Out in the Dark
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
JESSIE POPE, 1868- 1941
Born in Leicester. Educated at Craven House, Leicester and North London Collegiate School. Popular journalist and versifier. Regular contributor to Punch, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Express.
Owen originally addressed Dulce et Decorum Est to her.
Two of her poems appear in Minds at War and one in Out in the Dark.
HERBERT READ, SIR, 1893-1968
Born in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire, the son of a farmer. Educated at Leeds University.
Before the war he was a Socialist, and internationalist, yet he volunteered in January 1915, joining the Yorkshire Regiment. Promoted to rank of captain. He was a natural leader and derived great satisfaction from his role. He was courageous, and daring. Awarded the Military Cross, and the DSO - an award just short of the Victoria Cross.
His 21-year-old brother, Charles, was killed in France in October, 1918.
He married the girl he had loved since before the war, in 1919. Leading art critic. Anarchist theorist. Distinguished academic career. - A complex and brilliant man.- Knighted 1953.
His moving poem about a deserter, The Execution of Cornelius Vane, and four other war poems are to be found in Minds at War.
ISAAC ROSENBERG, 1890-1918
Born in Bristol, educated in London's East End and Slade School of Art. He was an artist and engraver as well as a poet, but finding no work he volunteered in October 1915.
Killed 1 April 1918. His war poetry is increasingly admired and was praised by Sassoon.
There are nine of his poems in Minds at War, and ten in Out in the Dark, plus a little further background material.
ALAN SEEGER, 1888-1916
Born in New York. Educated at Harvard. After graduating he lived in Greenwich Village for two years by sponging off his friends. He was aimless, anti-social and scruffy. His parents sent him to continue his studies in Paris.
He saw the war as a liberation from the dullness of everyday life. On its outbreak he rushed to join the French Foreign Legion. He dreamed of leading heroic charges in the thick of battle.
He was killed at Belloy-en-Santerre on the fourth day of the Battle of the Somme, 4 July, 1916.
His deservedly famous and moving poem, Rendezvous, is included in both anthologies.
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY, 1895-1915
Born in Aberdeen. Educated at Marlborough, University College, Oxford, and for six months in Germany at Schwerin and Jena.
He loved Germany and hated the idea of the war and fighting for England. Consciously yielding to psychological pressure he enlisted in 1914, joining the Suffolk Regiment. He was promoted to Captain in August 1915 and killed in the Battle of Loos, 13 October 1915, at the age of twenty.
Robert Graves was very impressed by Sorley's poetry.
Five of his poems in both anthologies.
MURIEL STUART, ? -1967
Born in London. Thomas Hardy described her poetry as "superlatively good."
Her poem, Forgotten Dead, I salute You, is to be found in Minds at War.
KATHARINE TYNAN, 1861 - 1931
Born in Clondalkin, County Dublin. Educated Siena Convent, Drogheda. During the war she had a son serving in Palestine and another in France. Friend of W B Yeats.
Both anthologies contain her poem, Joining the Colours.
ARTHUR GRAEME WEST, 1891-1917
Educated at Blundell's and Oxford. Enlisted with the Public School's Battalion in February 1915.
He grew to hate the war, and lost his faith in God. He was convinced he should protest or desert but could not find the courage to do so.
He was killed by a sniper's bullet, 3 April, 1917 at Bapaume. His war diary, The Diary of a Dead Officer, which contained his poetry, was published in 1919.
West wrote two particularly powerful war poems: God, How I Hate You, and Night Patrol. The full texts of both appear in both anthologies.



Minds at WarThe classic poems of First World War and more
Out in the DarkAnthology of First World War poetry recommended for students and the general reader
Back to Index to Lives of Poets
Main Index
Copyright 1996 © David RobertsFree use permitted for personal study


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War poet
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A War poet is a poet writing in time of and on the subject of war. The term, which is applied especially to those in military service during World War I,[1] was documented as early as 1848 in reference to German revolutionary poet,[2] Georg Herwegh.[3] The 1854 publication of Charge of the Light Brigade allowed Alfred Tennyson to be classified a war poet,[4] and in 1900 Mabel Birchenough published Wanted–a New War Poet: a Handful of Crimean War Poems.[5]
In November 1985, a slate memorial was unveiled in Poet's Corner commemorating 16 poets of the Great War: Richard Aldington, Laurence Binyon, Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Wilfrid Gibson, Robert Graves, Julian Grenfell, Ivor Gurney, David Jones, Robert Nichols, Wilfred Owen, Herbert Read, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Charles Sorley and Edward Thomas. [6]
Contents
[hide]
1 World War I
2 The Spanish Civil War
3 World War II
4 Later wars
5 References
6 Notes
7 External links
[edit] World War I
Several poets writing in English were soldiers, and wrote about their experiences of war. A number of them died, most famously Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen, and Charles Sorley. Others such as Siegfried Sassoon survived, but made a reputation based on scathing poetry written from the disabused point of view of the trench soldier who had lost faith in his military superiors.
At the time the term soldier poet was also used, but then dropped out of favour. The evolution of the concept was linked to a distinction drawn between poets who were anti-war in attitude and those who wrote more traditional war poetry.
There was probably as much poetry of quality written on the German side of the Western Front; but it was in English poetry, such as that of Wilfred Owen, that the war poem became an established genre marker and attracted growing popular interest. Americans and Canadians contributed notable work; John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields which is on the Canadian $10 bill. The French, too, had their own war poetry, as did the Italians, most notably that of Giuseppe Ungaretti. According to Patrick Bridgwater in The German Poets of the First World War, the closest comparison to Owen would be Anton Schnack, and Schnack's only peer would be August Stramm.
What makes a war poet is not well-defined (compare, say, Brooke and Georg Trakl). The public may have seen war poems as reportage creating direct emotional links to the soldier.
Robert H. Ross[7] characterises 'war poets' as a subgroup of the Georgian Poetry writers: those who were in uniform (including therefore Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Nichols, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon).
Robert Graves and David Jones both served in the trenches and survived. Graves did not use his war experience as poetic material, instead recounting it as autobiography in Goodbye to All That, whereas Jones postponed its use, incorporating it into modernist forms. These and other World War I poets are listed here: World War I poets.
[edit] The Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War produced a substantial volume[8] of poetry in English and, of course, Spanish and other languages. There were English-speaking poets serving in the Spanish Civil War on both sides. Among those fighting with the Republicans as volunteers in the International Brigades were Clive Branson, John Cornford, Charles Donnelly, Alex McDade and Tom Wintringham.[9]
[edit] World War II
By World War II the role of 'war poet' was so well-established in the public mind that 'Where are the war poets?' became a topic of discussion. The Times Literary Supplement ran an editorial 'To the Poets of 1940' right at the end of 1939 (still during the phony war, therefore). Robert Graves gave a radio talk 'Why has this War produced no War Poets?' in October 1941. Stephen Spender also addressed the question at about the same time, as did T. S. Eliot a year later.
Alun Lewis and Keith Douglas are the standard critical choices amongst British war poets of that time, and the American Karl Shapiro made a reputation based on poetry written during the Pacific war. However, there was probably more heavyweight poetry from 1939-1944 written in French than in English. The reason may be to do with the availability of radio journalism and the fact that soldiers spent less of their time sitting in trenches waiting for something to happen.
The expectation of war poetry can be noted in a character from C. S. Forester's novel The Ship who is a poet serving in a Royal Navy ship in the Mediterranean around 1942 and is killed in action. Benjamin Britten's War Requiem made use of war poem texts, as did Robert Steadman's "In Memoriam". In Britten's Requiem some poems by Wilfred Owen are interspersed among the Latin texts.
[edit] Later wars
There has been little recognition of war poetry from any subsequent conflict, certainly when compared with novels. That is not at all to say that such conflicts have not affected poets and what they write.
Vietnam war poet Earl E. Martin published A Poet Goes to War[10] in 1970. The blurb reads: "After a few poems about military training and about being stationed first in Korea, more than half of the book deals with Vietnam. It shows particular attention to authentic detail: self-dissociation in a combat setting, Hispanic and black comrades, loss of innocence, ears as trophies, jungle bunkers, piss tubes, rats, insects, monsoons, survival. The poet served in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968" - Newman
Michael Casey's debut collection, Obscenities, which draws on his work as military police officer in Vietnam's Quang Nga province won the 1972 Yale Younger Poets Award. Other prominent Vietnam War poets are W. D. Ehrhart, Yusef Komunyakaa and Bruce Weigl.[11]
In 2006 Captain Gregory Robert Samuels published War Poems from Iraq, based on his experiences as Company Commander of the 143rd Military Police Company, which was deployed in Bagdad, Iraq, from April 2003 until April 2004.[12]
[edit] References
Jon Silkin (1972), Out of Battle: The Poetry of the Great War
Pinaki Roy (With an Introduction by James Scott Campbell, and Edited by Nivedita Choudhury) (forthcoming) (2009), The Scarlet Critique: A Critical Anthology of War Poetry
[edit] Notes
^ "war poet noun" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005
^ Herwegh, Georg, The Columbia Encyclopedia (2008)
^ The Times, Southern Germany, 29 September 1848
^ The Times, 1 November 1901; Reviews Of Books
^ The Times Column Of New Books and New Editions 29 September 1900
^ Westminster Abbey: Poets of the First World War
^ The Georgian Revolt, p.166.
^ The Penguin Book of Spanish Civil War Verse, edited by Valentine Cunningham (Penguin, 1980); see also War Poets Association: Spanish War
^ Poems from Spain: British and Irish International Brigaders of the Spanish Civil War in Verse, edited by Jim Jump. (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2006)
^ A Poet Goes to War. (Bozeman: Big Sky Books, Montana State University, 1970). 16mo. Wraps. 78 p.
^ Unaccustomed Mercy: Soldier-Poets of the Vietnam War, edited by W. D. Ehrhart. (Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press, 1989)
^ War Poems from Iraq
[Disclaimers

A COLLECTION OF POEMSBY
ALEKSANDR PUSHKIN(Born 1799, Died 1837)
(Translations from Russian)


Aleksandr Pushkin is, by common agreement -- at least among his own compatriots -- the greatest of all Russian writers. The major part of his lyrical poetry was written between 1820 and 1830, but some of his poetical masterpieces were composed in the last seven years of his life, when he was turning his attention to prose. A development can be traced from the sparkling ebullience of his early verse -- the crowning achievement of which is the first chapter of Evgeny Onegin, written in 1823 -- to the concetrated expressiveness and restrained power of his later poetry. By effecting a new synthesis between the three main ingredients of the Russian literary idiom -- the Church Slovanic, the Western European borrowings, and the spoken vernacular -- Pushkin created the language of modern Russian poetry. His personal life was made difficult by his conflicts with the authorities who disapproved of his liberal views. He was killed in a duel.
From "The Heritage of Russian Verse," by Dimitri Obolensky

A
Anchar
Angel
Arion
Artist
Awakening
B
The Bacchic Song
The Bronze Horseman
The Burned Letter
C
The Cart of Life
The Chronicle of the Versemaker
The Cloister on Kazbek
The Cloud
Conversation of a Bookseller With a Poet
The Curious
D
"The Deaf Once Called the Deaf…"
The Demon
The Dream
E
"The Elders…"
Elegy
Epigram To Death Of the Verse-Monger
Evgeny Onegin
F
Farewell
“Farewell, O, Faithful Leafy Groves!...”
The Flower
"The Flowers Of Autumn Days"
"For Shores Of Home..."
Friendship
G
"Good for the Poet Who..."
The Gypsies
The Gypsies (2)
H
The Hills of Georgia
"How Sweet It is..."
I
"I am in Chains..."
"I Don't Deplore the Years..."
"I Loved You..."
Imitation
"I'm Left Alone at..."
"In Vain I've Thought to Hide..."
Invocation
"In the Worldly Steppe..."
"It Grows Thin..."
"It's Time, My Friend..."
"I Went Through All My..."
"I Will Be Silent Soon..."
J
"Just There, Over the Crowned..."
K
Karamzin
L
"The Land of Moscow..."
"The League of Ours Is..."
"Let a Bard, With..."
"Let God Help You..."
"Let Him, Who's Crowned By..."
A Little Bird
M
The Maiden
Morpheus
Muse
"My Beauty, Do Not Sing For Me"
"My Used Ignorance..."
N
“A Naïve Zealot of the Alien...”
"Near the Area, Where Reigns Venice of Gold…"
The Night
A Nightingale and a Rose
O
"Oh, Laziness, Come..."
"Oh, Muse of the Red..."
"Oh, Rome -- a Proud Land..."
P
Perfidy
The Poet
Poet and Crowd
The Portrait
Presentiment
The Prisoner
The Prophet
R
"The Raven to the Ravens Flies…"
Remembrance
Ruslan and Lyudmila
S
"The Saddened Crescent…"
"Save Me From Madness, God..."
Separation
Shoemaker
The Singer
Solitude
"Such as I Was Before…"
"Suppose That You Won..."
T
Talisman
The Tempest
The Tenth Commandment
Thou and You
To...
To the Baby
To the Beauty
To the Bust of the Conqueror
To E. N. Ushakova
To the Fountain Of the Palace Of the Bakchisarai
To I. I. Puschin
The Tokens of Superstition
To Morpheus
To My Friends
To a Poet
To the Portrait of Zhukovsky
To Scherbinin
To Vyazemsky
To Yazykov
To Zhukovsky
The Truth
"Tumansky's Right When He..."
W
"What Means For You..."
"What's Up? Why Are You..."
"When Your So Young and Fairy Years…"
"Who'd Fully Stopped You..."
"Why Have You To Sustain..."
Winter Evening
The Winter Road
The Wish
"Worse Than an Idyl..."

Special thanks to Yevgeny Bonver, Tanya Karshtedt and Dmitry Karshtedt for providing me with unique material for this page (i.e. with their translations of famous poems by Aleksandr Pushkin)
Last Modification Date: October 23, 2008Page created and maintained by Edward BonverE-mail: edward@poetryloverspage.com Copyright © 1995-2008 poetryloverspage.com. All rights reserved.
The Bronze Horseman
A Petersburg Story1833
INTRODUCTIONThe incident, described in this story is based on a truth.The details of the flood are taken from the contemporary magazines.The curious ones can consult the record, prepared by V. I. Berkh.PROLOGUE
On a deserted, wave-swept shore,
He stood – in his mind great thoughts grow –
And gazed afar. The northern river
Sped on its wide course him before;
One humble skiff cut the waves’ silver.
On banks of mosses and wet grass
Black huts were dotted there by chance –
The miserable Finn’s abode;
The wood unknown to the rays
Of the dull sun, by clouds stowed,
Hummed all around. And he thought so:
‘The Swede from here will be frightened;
Here a great city will be wrought
To spite our neighborhood conceited.
From here by Nature we’re destined
To cut a door to Europe wide,
To step with a strong foot by waters.
Here, by the new for them sea-paths,
Ships of all flags will come to us –
And on all seas our great feast opens.’

An age passed, and the young stronghold,
The charm and sight of northern nations,
From the woods’ dark and marshes’ cold,
Rose the proud one and precious.
Where once the Finnish fisherman,
Sad stepson of the World, alone,
By low riverbanks’ a sand,
Cast into waters, never known,
His ancient net, now on the place,
Along the full of people banks,
Cluster the tall and graceful masses
Of castles and palaces; and sails
Hasten in throng to the rich quays
From all the lands our planet masters;
The Neva-river’s dressed with rocks;
Bridges hang o’er the waters proud;
Abundantly her isles are covered
With dark-green gardens’ gorgeous locks…

By the new capital, the younger,
Old Moscow’s eclipsed at once -
Such is eclipsed a queen-dowager
By a new queen when her time comes.
I love you, Peter’s great creation,
I love your view of stern and grace,
The Neva wave’s regal procession,
The grayish granite – her bank’s dress,
The airy iron-casting fences,
The gentle transparent twilight,
The moonless gleam of your nights restless,
When I so easy read and write
Without a lamp in my room lone,
And seen is each huge buildings’ stone
Of the left streets, and is so bright
The Admiralty spire’s flight,
And when, not letting the night’s darkness
To reach the golden heaven’s height,
The dawn after the sunset hastens –
And a half-hour’s for the night.
I love your so sever winter’s
Quite still and fresh air and strong frost,
The sleighs race on the shores river’s,
The girls – each brighter than a rose,
The gleam and hum of the balls’ dances,
And, on the bachelors’ free feast,
The hissing of the foaming glasses
And the punch’s bluish flaming mist.
I love the warlike animation
Of the play-fields of the god Mars,
And horse-and-footmen priests’ of wars
So homogeneous attraction,
In their ranks, in the rhythmic moves,
Those flags, victories and rended,
The glitter of those helmets, splendid,
Shot through in military strives.
I love, O capital my fairest,
Your stronghold guns’ thunder and smoke,
In moments when the northern empress
Adds brunches to the regal oak
Or Russia lauds a winning stroke
To any new and daring foe,
Or, breaking up the light-blue ice,
The Neva streams it and exults,
Scenting the end of cold and snow.

City of Peter, just you shine
And stand unshakable as Russia!
May make a peace with beauty, thine,
The conquered nature’s casual rushes;
And let the Finnish waves forget
Their ancient bondages and malice
And not disturb with their hate senseless
The endless sleep of Peter, great!

The awful period was that,
It’s fresh in our recollection…
This time about, my dear friend,
I am beginning my narration.
My story will be very sad.


PART ONE

On Petrograd, sunk into darkness,
November breathed with fall cold’s harshness.
And, splashing, with the noisy waves
Into the brims of her trim fences,
The Neva raved, like the seek raves
In a bed, that has become the restless.
Now it was very dark and late;
The rain stroke ‘gainst the window’s flat.
And the wind blew with sadly wailing.
Right at this time, from being a guest
Evgeny, for his nightly rest,
Came home. This name was most prevailing
In our young hero’s name choice.
It sounds pleasantly. Of course,
With it my pen’s had long connections
It needn’t the special commendations,
Though in the times, in Lithe gone,
It might have been the most attractive
And under Karamzin’s pen, fine,
Sung in some legends, our native;
But now it is forgotten by
The world and rumors. Our guy
Lives in Kolomna: he’s in service,
Avoids the rich ones, and ne’er sad is
For his kin which had left the world,
Or for the well-forgotten old.

So, he is home – our Evgeny,
Took off his greatcoat, undressed,
Lay in his poor bed, but oppressed
He was by his thoughts, so many.
What did he thought of? Well, of that
That he was poor and that his bread,
His honour and his independence
Just by hard work must be achieved,
That God should send to him from heavens
More mind and money. That do live
Such idle, fully happy creatures –
The lazy-bones, quite ludicrous,.
Whose life is absolutely light!
That he had served for two long years;
And that the weather, former fierce,
Hadn’t come less fierce, that the flood
In the Neva is getting higher,
The bridges might be got entire,
And that his sweet Parasha’s place
For two-free days wouldn’t be accessed.
There sighed Evgeny with his soul,
And dreamed as dreams a real bard:

“To marry then? Of course it’s hard.
But why don’t marry, in a whole?
I’m of the young and healthy sight,
Ready to work for day and night;
I’ll someway find the good repose,
The simple and shy place, at last,
Parasha will be there composed.
The year or, may be, two will pass –
I’m in position, to my dear
I’ll give all family to bear
And bring our children up, at once...
Such we’ll start life, at last repose,
With hand-in-hand, such we’ll come both,
And our grandsons will bury us...”

Thus he did dream. And a great sadness
Embraced his soul in that night,
He wished the wind’s weep to be lesser,
Rain’s siege of windows – not so tight.
At last his sleepy eyes were closed...
And now the night is getting gray –
That night, so nasty and morose,
And it is coming – the pale day
The awful day! During the night
Neva had strived for sea ‘gainst tempests
But, having lost all her great battles,
The river ceased the useless fight…
And in the morn on her shores proud,
Stood people in a pressed in lot
And saw the tall and heard the loud
Fierce waters’ mountains, it had brought.
But by the force of airy breathing
Blocked from the Gulf, the wide Neva
Came back – the wrathful one and seething -
And flooded islands, near and far;
The weather grew into the cruel,
Neva – more swelling and more brutal,
Like in a kettle boiled and steamed,
And then, as a wild creature seemed,
Jumped on the city. And before it,
All ran away from its strait path,
And all got emptied there; at once.
The waters flew into the cellars,
And raised up to the fence of canals –
And, like Triton, Petropol sails
Sunk in the water till his waist.

Siege and assault! The evil waters
Thrust into windows, like slaughters.
The mad boats row into a glass.
The stalls are under the wet mass.
The wrecks of huts, the logs, roofs’ pieces,
The stores of the tread, auspicious,
The things, carried the pale want from,
The bridges got away by storm,
The coffins from the graveyards - float,
Along the streets!
The populace
Sees God’s great wrath and waits for death.
All is destroyed: bread and abode.
And how to live?
The monarch, blessed,
Tsar Aleksandr, in a good fashion,
Still governed Russia that year, dread,
And from the balcony he, sad
And pale, said: “Ne’er the God-made nature
Can be subdued by any tsars.”
And, in a thought, looked at the evil’s
With his full of deep sadness eyes.
The streets turned into the fast rivers,
Running to made lakes, dark and grievous,
The Palace was an island, sad,
That loomed over the blackened waters.
The Tsar decreed – from end to end,
Down the shortest streets and longest,
On danger routs over the waves,
His generals set into the sailing –
To save the drawing and straining
On streets and in their homes-graves.

Then on the widest Square of Peter,
Where with his glass a new pile glittered,
Where on its porch, too highly placed,
With their paw raised, as if they’re living,
Stood two marble lions, overseeing.
On one of them, as for a race,
Without his hat, arms – tightly pressed,
Awfully pale – no stir appeared –
Evgeny sat. And there he feared
Not his own death. He did not hear
How the wrathful roller neared,
Greedily licking his shoes’ soles,
And how flagged him the rain coarse,
And how the fierce wind there wailed,
Or how it’d blown off his hat.
His looks of deepest desperation
Were all set on a single place
Without a move. The waves, impatient,
Had risen there, like tallest crags,
Lifted from waked deeps in a madness,
There wreckage swam, there wailed a tempest …
O, God! O, God! – Right on that place,
Alas! so close to the waves,
And by the shores of the Gulf Finnish,
A willow-tree, a fence unfinished
And an old hut: there they must be –
A widow and her child Parasha –
His soul’s dream … Or does he see
It in a dream? … And, like the usher
Of dreams – a sleep, is our life none –
Just Heavens make of Earth a fun?

And he, like under conjuration,
Like in jail irons’ limitation,
Cannot come down. Him around
Only black waters could be found!
And turned to him with his back, proudest,
On height that never might be tossed,
Over Neva’s unending wildness,
Stands, with his arm, stretched to skies, lightless,
The idol on his brazen horse.


PART TWO

But now, sated with distraction
And tired of its rude attack,
Neva, at last, was coming back,
Looking at ruins with satisfaction
And leaving with a little attention
Its prey behind. A reprobate,
With his sever and low set,
Thus, thrusting in a village, helpless,
Breaks, slaughters, robs all and oppresses:
The roar, rape, swore, alert and wails!...
And, under their large booty posted,
Afraid of chases and exhausted,
The robbers speed to their old place,
Losing their loot along the road.

The waves were gone, the pavement, broad,
Was opened, and Evgeny, stressed,
With heart half-dead and stifled throat,
In a hope, fear and awful pains,
Runs to the stream, just now restrained.
But, in the winning celebration,
Waves still were boiling with a passion,
As if to flames, under them fanned;
They still were with white foam covered,
And Neva’s breast was heavily moved,
Like the steed’s one after a race.
Evgeny sees a boat here;
He runs to it – a find, revered, –
He calls a boatman at once –
The boatman, a guy quite careless,
Just for ten kopeks, with great gladness,
Takes him into the waves’ wild dance.

And for a long with these waves, close,
The much trained rower was in fight,
And to sink deeply mid their rows,
The scuff, with its brave sailors both,
Was apt all time… The other side
Is reached, at last. And the frustrated
Runs through the so well-known street
To his old places. He doesn’t meet
A thing, he’d known. The view’s rated
As the worst one! All’s in a mess –
All is failed down or swept or stressed:
The little houses are bent down,
Some – shifted, some – razed to their ground
By awful forces of the waves;
The bodies, waiting for their graves,
Are lying round, like aft fight, merciless.
Our poor Evgeny – his mind’s flamed –
Half-dead under the tortures, endless,
Runs there where the inhumane fate
Would give him the unknown message,
As if a letter, sealed to bear;
He’s now in the suburbs’ wreckage,
There is the Gulf, the house is near…
But what is this? He stopped, frustrated,
Went back, returned a little later…
He looks… he walks … he looks once more.
There is the place their house for
And willow-tree. The gates were here –
They’re swept… But where’s the house, o grace?
And full of troubles, hard to wear,
He walked and walked around the place.
Told to himself in voices loud –
And suddenly, as if all’s found,
Struck his forehead and fell in laugh.
The night embraced the city, stuffed
With all its woe. And still for hours
A sleep was running from each house –
The folk recalling the past day.
Now, through the clouds, weak and pale,
The morn ray flashed o’er the mute city
And did not found e’en a trace
Of the past woe. The dawn, witty,
Had safely screened the doing, base.
The former life had got its place.
Along the streets now free of flooding,
With cold indifference, folks are moving.
Just having left his lodge of night,
The clerk is going at his site.
The petty tradesman, very dauntless,
Is opening his cellar – wet,
Robbed by the waves’ impudent set –
Intending to revenge his losses
On brothers-humans. From the yard
Is pulled the boat, full of mud.
Count Khvostov, a pet of Zeus,
Now is singing his songs, deathless,
To the Neva shores’ former plight.

What’s of Evgeny, our poor hero? …
Alas! His agitated mind,
Against the immense woe’s billow
Didn’t stand untouchable. The wind’s
And Neva’s noise was always growing
In his poor ears. Mute and half-blind,
With awful thoughts, he was a-roaming,
Being quite tortured by some dream.
A week, month passed by as a stream,
At his past home he wasn’t returning
And his landlord, when the rent’s time
Had gone, gave his corner to some
Bard, sunk in a poverty unduly.
Evgeny didn’t come for his stuff
And soon became a stranger, fully,
To world: his day wasn’t long enough
For walk; he slept on wharfs till morning
His bread was one a beggar has,
He wore the dirt and rotten dress.
The evil children, with cries joyful,
Sometimes threw stones to his back,
Often the coachmen’ whips, wrathful,
Stung his thin body – for his track
Was cast without choosing direction –
He seemed to notice nothing else –
He was quiet deafened and oppressed
By noise of inner agitation.
And thus he strayed in his life’s mist –
Not humane being, nor some beast –
Not fish, nor flesh – not living creature,
Nor ghost of dead … But once he slept
By Neva’s wharf – the summer’s features
Were now like autumn’s. The wind, bad,
Was breathing there. The roller, sad,
Was splashing its complain and groan
And striking ‘gainst the steps of stone,
Like the offended at the door
Of justice that doesn’t hear him more.
The poor waked up. All was gloom round:
Falling the rain, wind wailing loud,
And it was answered through the night
By some alone distant guard...
Evgeny got up in a hurry,
He recollected his all flurry,
Stood on a spot, began to walk
And stopped again, almost choked,
Intently gazing him around
With a wild terror on his face...
It seemed that he himself had found
By a big house where were placed,
With their paw up, as if quite living,
Two marble lions, overseeing,
And in the height, strait o’er him posed,
Over the rock, fenced with cast iron,
With arm stretched into the skies, sullen,
The idol sat on his bronze horse.

Evgeny startled. Became clear
The strange thoughts, torturing his mind –
He named the place where played the flood,
Where ran the waters-spoilers, fierce, –
Merging in one rebellious stream, –
The lions, square and, at last, him,
Who stood without a move and sound –
The cooper head piercing black skies –
Him, by whose fatal enterprise
This city under sea took ground...
He’s awful in the nightly dark!
In what a thought his brow’s sunk!
What a great might in it lies, hidden!
And what a fire’s in this steed!
O, proud horse, where do you speed!
Where will you down your bronze hoofs, flittin’?
O, karma’s mighty sovereign!
Not thus you’d reared Russia, sullen,
Into the height, with a curb, iron,
Before an abyss in your reign?

The poor madman circled around
The foot of the black idol’s mass,
He gazed into the brazen face
Of the half-planet’s ruler, proud.
And was his breast oppressed. He laid
On the cold barrier his forehead.
His eyes were veiled with a mist-cover,
His heart was all caught with a flame,
His blood seethed. Gloomy he became
Before the idol, looming over,
And, having clenched his teeth and fist,
As if possessed by evil powers,
“Well, builder-maker of the marvels,”
He whispered, trembling in a fit,
“You only wait!...”- And to a street,
At once he started to run out –
He fancied: that the great tsar’s face,
With a wrath suddenly embraced,
Was turning slowly around...
And strait along the empty square
He runs and hears as if there were,
Just behind him, the peals of thunder,
Of the hard-ringing hoofs’ reminders, –
A race the empty square across,
Upon the pavement, fiercely tossed;
And by the moon, that palled lighter,
Having stretched his hand over roofs,
The Brazen Horseman rides him after –
On his steed of the ringing hoofs.
And all the night the madman, poor,
Where’er he might direct his steps,
Aft him the Bronze Horseman, for sure,
Keeps on the heavy-treading race.

And from this time, when he was going,
Along this square, only by chance,
A sense of terror was deforming
His features. And he would then press
His hand to heart in a great fastness,
As if to make its tortures painless,
Take off the worn peaked cap at once,
Didn’t turn from earth his fearful eyes
And try to pass by.
A small island’s
Seen in the sea quite near a shore.
A fisherman, the late catch for,
Would sail to it with his net, silent,
Sometimes – and boil there his soup, poor;
Or an official clerk would moor
To it in a boat-walking Sunday’s.
The empty isle. Seeds don’t beget
There any plant. A player, sightless,
The flood, had pulled there a ghost, sad,
Of an old hut. The water over,
It had been left like a bush, black.
Last spring, by a small barging rover,
It was conveyed to the shore, back –
Destroyed and empty. By its entry,
They’d found the poor madman of mine
And, for a sake of the Divine,
Buried his corpse in that soil, scanty.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, March, 2004 - March, 2005
© Copyright, poetryloverspage.com, 2004-2005





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Alexander Pushkin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Pushkin" redirects here. For other uses, see Pushkin (disambiguation).
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin
Aleksandr Pushkin by Vasily Tropinin
Born
June 6, 1799(1799-06-06)Moscow, Russian Empire
Died
February 10, 1837 (aged 37)Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Occupation
Poet, novelist, playwright
Influences[show]
Nikolai Karamzin, Lord Byron, Ğabdulla Tuqay
Influenced[show]
Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, Maxim Gorky, Henry James, Aleksandr Blok, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladimir Nabokov, Stanislavski
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин, pronounced [ɐlʲɪˈksandr sʲɪˈrɡʲejevʲɪtɕ ˈpuʃkʲɪn] ( listen)) (June 6 [O.S. May 26] 1799–February 10 [O.S. January 29] 1837) was a Russian author of the Romantic era[1] who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet[2][3][4][5] and the founder of modern Russian literature.[6][7] Pushkin pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his poems and plays, creating a style of storytelling—mixing drama, romance, and satire—associated with Russian literature ever since and greatly influencing later Russian writers. He also wrote historical fiction. His Marie: A Story of Russian Love provides insight into Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great.
Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo. Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals; in the early 1820s he clashed with the government, which sent him into exile in southern Russia. While under the strict surveillance of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will, he wrote his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov, but could not publish it until years later. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was published serially from 1825 to 1832.
Pushkin and his wife Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, later became regulars of court society. In 1837, while falling into greater and greater debt amidst rumors that his wife had started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover, Georges d'Anthès, to a duel. Pushkin was mortally wounded and died two days later.
Because of his political views and influence on generations of Russian rebels, Pushkin was portrayed by Bolsheviks as an opponent to bourgeois literature and culture and a predecessor of Soviet literature and poetry[7]. In 1937, the town of Tsarskoe Selo was renamed Pushkin in his honor.
Great-Grandson[8] of an African slave, Aleksandr Pushkin is also the best-known and high-profiled African-Russian.
Contents
[hide]
1 Biography
2 Literary legacy
2.1 Pushkin and Romanticism
3 Influence on the Russian language
4 List of works
5 Awards and honors
6 Hoaxes and other attributed works
7 References in popular culture
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 External links
[edit] Biography

A young Pushkin, by Xavier De Maistre. Oil on metal plate. The State Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
Pushkin's father Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848) descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility which traced its ancestry back to the 12th century.[8][9] Pushkin's mother Nadezhda (Nadja) Ossipovna Hannibal (1775–1836) descended through her paternal grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility.[10][11] She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife Maria Aleksejevna Pushkina (1745 - 1818). Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, i.e., Pushkin's great-grandfather, was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696 - 1781), a page raised by Peter the Great who was born in Lagon, Eritrea.[8][9][10][11][12] After education in France as a military engineer, Abram Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually General-en-Chef for the building of sea forts and canals in Russia.

The 16-year old Pushkin recites a poem before Gavrila Derzhavin. Painting by Ilya Repin (1911).
Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen. By the time he finished as part of the first graduating class of the prestigious Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo near Saint Petersburg, the Russian literary scene recognized his talent widely. After finishing school, Pushkin installed himself in the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of the capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1820 he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Lyudmila, amidst much controversy about its subject and style.
Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. This angered the government, and led to his transfer from the capital (1820). He went to the Caucasus and to the Crimea, then to Kamenka and Chisinau, where he became a Freemason. Here he joined the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule over Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Turks broke out he kept a diary with the events of the great national uprising. He stayed in Chisinau until 1823 and wrote there two Romantic poems which brought him wide acclaim, The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. In 1823 Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile at his mother's rural estate in Mikhailovskoe (near Pskov) from 1824 to 1826.[13] However, some of the authorities allowed him to visit Tsar Nicholas I to petition for his release, which he obtained. But some of the insurgents in the Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of his early political poems amongst their papers, and soon Pushkin found himself under the strict control of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will. He had written what became his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov, while at his mother's estate but could not gain permission to publish it until five years later. The drama's original, uncensored version would not receive a premiere until 2007.

Pushkin's wife Natalya Goncharova
In 1831, highlighting the growth of Pushkin's talent and influence and the merging of two of Russia's greatest early writers, he met Nikolai Gogol. After reading Gogol's 1831–2 volume of short stories Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, Pushkin would support him critically and later in 1836 after starting his magazine, The Contemporary, would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories. Later, Pushkin and his wife Natalya Goncharova, whom he married in 1831, became regulars of court society. When the Tsar gave Pushkin the lowest court title, the poet became enraged: he felt this occurred not only so that his wife, who had many admirers—including the Tsar himself—could properly attend court balls, but also to humiliate him. In 1837, falling into greater and greater debt amidst rumors that his wife had started conducting a scandalous affair, Pushkin challenged her alleged lover, his brother in-law Georges d'Anthès, to a duel which left both men injured, Pushkin mortally. He died two days later. His last accommodation is a museum now.
The government feared a political demonstration at his funeral, which it moved to a smaller location and made open only to close relatives and friends. His body was spirited away secretly at midnight and buried on his mother's estate.
Pushkin had four children from his marriage to Natalya: Maria (b. 1832, touted as a prototype of Anna Karenina), Alexander (b. 1833), Grigory (b. 1835), and Natalya (b. 1836) the last of whom married, morganatically, into the royal house of Nassau to Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and became the Countess of Merenberg.
[edit] Literary legacy
Pushkin Statue in Arts Square, Saint Petersburg.
Critics consider many of his works masterpieces, such as the poem The Bronze Horseman and the drama The Stone Guest, a tale of the fall of Don Juan. His poetic short drama "Mozart and Salieri" was the inspiration for Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. Pushkin himself preferred his verse novel Eugene Onegin, which he wrote over the course of his life and which, starting a tradition of great Russian novels, follows a few central characters but varies widely in tone and focus. "Onegin" is a work of such complexity that, while only about a hundred pages long, translator Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning in English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so, Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers like Henry James.[14]
Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers. Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila is the earliest important Pushkin-inspired opera, and a landmark in the tradition of Russian music. Tchaikovsky's operas Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades (1890) became perhaps better known outside of Russia than Pushkin's own works of the same name, while Mussorgsky's monumental Boris Godunov (two versions, 1868-9 and 1871-2) ranks as one of the very finest and most original of Russian operas. Other Russian operas based on Pushkin include Dargomyzhsky's Rusalka and The Stone Guest; Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri, Tale of Tsar Saltan, and The Golden Cockerel; Cui's Prisoner of the Caucasus, Feast in Time of Plague, and The Captain's Daughter; Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa; Rachmaninov's one-act operas Aleko (based on The Gypsies) and The Miserly Knight; Stravinsky's Mavra, and Nápravník's Dubrovsky. This is not to mention ballets and cantatas, as well as innumerable songs set to Pushkin's verse. Suppé, Leoncavallo and Malipiero, among non-Russian composers, have based operas on his works.[15]
Increased attention has also been given to Pushkin's apparent anti-Semitism, as well as that of other nineteenth-century Russian writers, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Gogol.[16][17][18][19][20][21]
[edit] Pushkin and Romanticism
Although Pushkin is considered the central representative of The Age of Romanticism in Russian literature, he can't be labelled unequivocally as a Romantic: Russian critics have traditionally argued that his works represent a path from neo-Classicism through Romanticism to Realism, while an alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities which may seem Romantic in origin, but is ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including the Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic".[1]
[edit] Influence on the Russian language

Alexander Pushkin by Orest Kiprensky
Alexander Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature. Not only is he seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, but he is also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Where he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devised calques. His rich vocabulary and highly sensitive style are the foundation for modern Russian literature. Russian literature virtually begins with Alexander Pushkin. His talent set up new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in 19th century, marking the highest achievements of 18th century and the beginning of literary process of 19th century. Alexander Pushkin introduced Russia to all the European literary genres as well as a great number of West European writers. He brought natural speech and foreign influences to create modern poetic Russian. Though his life was brief, he left examples of nearly every literary genre of his day: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, the novel, the short story, the drama, the critical essay, and even the personal letter. Pushkin's work as a journalist marked the birth of the Russian magazine culture, including him devising and contributing heavily to one of the most influential literary magazines of 19th century, the Sovremennik (The Contemporary, or Современник). From him derive the folk tales and genre pieces of other authors: Esenin, Leskov and Gorky. His use of Russian language formed the basis of the style of novelists Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, and Leo Tolstoy. Pushkin was recognized by Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol, his successor and pupil, the great Russian critic Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky, who produced the fullest and deepest critical study of Pushkin's work, which still retains much of its relevance. Alexander Pushkin became an inseparable part of the literary world of the Russian people. He also exerted a profound influence on other aspects of Russian culture, most notably in opera. Translated into all the major languages, his works are regarded both as expressing most completely Russian national consciousness and as transcending national barriers. Pushkin’s intelligence, sharpness of his opinion, his devotion to poetry, realistic thinking and incredible historical and political intuition make him one of the greatest Russian national geniuses.
[edit] List of works
Painting Pushkin at the beach, by Ivan Aivazovsky, 1887, Art Museum, Mykolaiv.

The famous Pushkin Monument in Moscow, opened in 1880 by Turgenev and Dostoyevsky.

Pushkin Monument in Moscow as it appears now.

Six winged Seraph (after Pushkin's poem Prophet), 1905. By Mikhail Vrubel.
Poems
1820 – Ruslan i Lyudmila (Руслан и Людмила); English translation: Ruslan and Ludmila
1820-21 – Kavkazskiy plennik (Кавказский пленник); English translation: The Prisoner of the Caucasus
1821 - Gavriiliada (Гавриилиада) ; English translation: The Gabrieliad
1821–22 – Bratya razboyniki (Братья разбойники); English translation: The Robber Brothers
1823 – Bakhchisaraysky fontan (Бахчисарайский фонтан); English translation: The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
1824 – Tsygany (Цыганы); English translation: The Gypsies
1825 – Graf Nulin (Граф Нулин); English translation: Count Nulin
1829 – Poltava (Полтава); English translation: Poltava
1830 – Domik v Kolomne (Домик в Коломне); English translation: The Little House in Kolomna
1833 - Andjelo (Анджело); English translation: Angelo
1833 – Medny vsadnik (Медный всадник); English translation: The Bronze Horseman
Verse novel
1825-32 – Yevgeny Onegin (Евгений Онегин); English translation: Eugene Onegin
Drama
1825 – Boris Godunov (Борис Годунов); English translation: Boris Godunov
1830 – Malenkie tragedii (Маленькие трагедии); English translation: The Little Tragedies
Kamenny gost (Каменный гость); English translation: The Stone Guest
Motsart i Salyeri (Моцарт и Сальери); English translation: Mozart and Salieri
Skupoy rytsar (Скупой рыцарь); English translations: The Miserly Knight, The Covetous Knight
Pir vo vremya chumy (Пир во время чумы); English translation: A Feast in Time of Plague
Prose
1831 – Povesti pokoynogo Ivana Petrovicha Belkina (Повести покойного Ивана Петровича Белкина); English translation: The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
Vystrel (Выстрел); English translation: The Shot, short story
Metel (Метель); English translation: The Blizzard, short story
Grobovschik (Гробовщик); English translation: The Undertaker, short story
Stanzionny smotritel (Станционный смотритель); English translation: The Stationmaster, short story
Baryshnya-krestyanka (Барышня-крестьянка); English translation: The Squire's Daughter, short story
1834 - Pikovaya dama (Пиковая дама); English translation: The Queen of Spades, short story
1834 - Kirdzhali (Кирджали); English translation: Kirdzhali, short story
1834 - Istoriya Pugacheva (История Пугачева); English translation: A History of Pugachev, study of the Pugachev's Rebellion
1836 - Kapitanskaya dochka (Капитанская дочка); English translation: The Captain's Daughter, novel
1836 - Puteshestvie v Arzrum (Путешествие в Арзрум); English translation: A Journey to Arzrum, travel sketches
1836 - Roslavlev (Рославлев); English translation: Roslavlev, unfinished novel
1837 - Arap Petra Velikogo (Арап Петра Великого); English translation: Peter the Great's Negro, unfinished novel
1837 - Istoriya sela Goryuhina (История села Горюхина); English translation: The Story of the Village of Goryukhino, unfinished short story
1837 - Yegipetskie nochi (Египетские ночи); English translation: Egyptian Nights, unfinished short story
1841 - Dubrovsky (Дубровский); English translation: Dubrovsky, unfinished novel
Tales in verse
1830 - Сказка о попе и о работнике его Балде; English translation: The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda
1830 - Сказка о медведихе; English translation: The Tale of the Female Bear (was not finished)
1831 - Сказка о царе Салтане; English translation: The Tale of Tsar Saltan
1833 - Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке; English translation: The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
1833 - Сказка о мертвой царевне; English translation: The Tale of the Dead Princess
1834 - Сказка о золотом петушке; English translation: The Tale of the Golden Cockerel
[edit] Awards and honors
This section requires expansion.
A minor planet, 2208 Pushkin, discovered in 1977 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after him.[22]
A crater, Pushkin, on Mercury is also named in his honor.
The Pushkin Trust was established in 1987 by the Duchess of Abercorn to commemorate the creative legacy and spirit of her ancestor Alexander Pushkin and to release the creativity and imagination of the children of Ireland by providing them with opportunities to communicate their thoughts, feelings and experiences.
Many authorities claim that Alexander Pushkin is the greatest poet of Russia.[2][3]
[edit] Hoaxes and other attributed works
In 1986, a book entitled Secret Journal 1836–1837 was published by a Minneapolis publishing house (M.I.P. Company), claiming to be the decoded content of an encrypted private journal kept by Pushkin. Promoted with few details about its contents, and touted for many years as being 'banned in Russia', it was an erotic novel narrated from Pushkin's perspective. Some mail-order publishers still carry the work under its fictional description. In 2001 it was first published in Moscow by Ladomir Publishing House which created a scandal. In 2006 a bilingual Russian-English edition was published in Russia by Retro Publishing House. Now published in 24 countries. Staged in Paris in 2006. See http://www.mipco.com/english/push.html
[edit] References in popular culture
Pushkin, his relationships, his writing and his life is portrayed in the shōjo manga Bronze Angel, by Saitō Chiho. [1]
Pushkin is referenced in the game Team Fortress 2 as an achievement that may be attained by the Heavy Weapons Guy, a Russian character, called Pushkin the Kart. [2]
[edit] See also

Pushkin's self-portrait on a one ruble coin, 1999
Vladimir Dal
Anton Delvig
Anna Petrovna Kern
Literaturnaya Gazeta
Pushkin Prize
Vasily Pushkin
Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy
[edit] Notes
^ a b Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed. , A Companion to European Romanticism. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
^ a b Short biography from University of Virginia, retrieved on 24 November 2006.
^ a b Allan Reid, "Russia's Greatest Poet/Scoundrel", retrieved on 2 September 2006.
^ BBC News, 5 June 1999, "Pushkin fever sweeps Russia", retrieved 1 September 2006.
^ BBC News, 10 June 2003, "Biographer wins rich book price", retrieved 1 September 2006.
^ Biography of Pushkin at the Russian Literary Institute "Pushkin House", retrieved 1 September 2006.
^ a b Maxim Gorky, "Pushkin, An Appraisal", retrieved 1 September 2006
^ a b c Aleksander Sergeevich Pushkin's descendants at Genealogics.org
^ a b Н. К. Телетова [N. K. Teletova] (2007).
^ a b Лихауг [Lihaug], Э. Г. [E. G.] (November 2006). "Предки А. С. Пушкина в Германии и Скандинавии: происхождение Христины Регины Шёберг (Ганнибал) от Клауса фон Грабо из Грабо [Ancestors of A. S. Pushkin in Germany and Scandinavia: Descent of Christina Regina Siöberg (Hannibal) from Claus von Grabow zu Grabow]". Генеалогический вестник [Genealogical Herald].–Санкт-Петербург [Saint Petersburg] 27: 31–38.
^ a b Lihaug, Elin Galtung (2007). "Aus Brandenburg nach Skandinavien, dem Baltikum und Rußland. Eine Abstammungslinie von Claus von Grabow bis Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin 1581–1837". Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung 11: 32–46.
^ Dieudonné Gnammankou, Abraham Hanibal - l’aïeul noir de Pouchkine, Présence Africaine Éditions, Paris 1996. ISBN 2-7087-0609-8.
^ Images of Pushkin in the works of the black "pilgrims". Ahern, Kathleen M. The Mississippi Quarterly. Pg. 75(11) Vol. 55 No. 1 ISSN: 0026-637X. December 22, 2001.
^ Joseph S. O'Leary, Pushkin in 'The Aspern Papers' , the Henry James E-Journal Number 2, March 2000, retrieved on 24 November 2006.
^ Taruskin R. Pushkin in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London & New York, Macmillan, 1997.
^ Russian Urges Quotas on Jews; Communists Begin to Split Over Comrade's Antisemitism. David Hoffman. The Washington Post, A Section; Pg. A28. November 12, 1998.
^ Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia By Emil Draitser. P. 112. Google Book Citation
^ Negative Images of Jews in Recent Russian Literature. Pereira, N G O
^ The Development of Russian Verse: Meter and Its Meanings By Michael Wachtel. p. 26. Google Book Citation
^ Puskin's "Black Shawl" poem. Fullbooks.com
^ One Less Hope: Essays on Twentieth-century Russian Poets By Constantin V. Ponomareff."The Avarious Knight" poem. p. 161. Google Book Citation
^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.). New York: Springer Verlag. pp. 179. ISBN 3540002383. http://books.google.com/books?q=2208+Pushkin+QU3.
[edit] References
Elaine Feinstein (ed.): After Pushkin: versions of the poems of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin by contemporary poets. Manchester: Carcanet Press; London: Folio Society, 1999 ISBN 1-85754-444-7
Serena Vitale: Pushkin's button; transl. from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998 ISBN 1-85702-937-2
Markus Wolf: Freemasonry in life and literature. With an introduction to the history of Russian Freemasonry (German). Munich: Otto Sagner publishers, 1998 ISBN 3-87690-692-X
T. J. Binyon has written an English biography: Pushkin: A Biography (London: HarperCollins, 2002) (ISBN 0-00-215084-0; US edition: New York: Knopf, 2003; ISBN 1-4000-4110-4).
Yuri Druzhnikov, Prisoner of Russia: Alexander Pushkin and the Political Uses of Nationalism, Transaction Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1-56000-390-1
Н. К. Телетова [N. K. Teletova], Забытые родственные связи А.С. Пушкина [The forgotten family connections of A. S. Pushkin], Спб.: Дорн [Saint Petersburg: Dorn], 2007. OCLC 214284063
Pogadaev, Victor. Penyair Agung Rusia Pushkin dan Dunia Timur (The Great Russian Poet Pushkin and the Oriental World). Monograph Series. Centre For Civilisational Dialogue. University Malaya. N 6, 2003, ISBN 983-3070-06-X
Death: February 10, 1837, St. Petersburg, Russia, from a pistol shot in a duel
Early Influences:
· Born into an upper-class literary family
· Entered an elite school called the Lyceum at age 12 where he made influential friends
· Began working in the foreign office of St. Petersburg, Russia soon after graduating from the Lyceum
· While in St. Petersburg, joined upper-class literary societies, attended the theater, and worked on his first romantic narrative poem
· Charged with writing subversive poetry in 1820 and was transferred
· Friends introduced him to the poetry of Lord Byron
· Had affairs with two married women while working in the foreign office
Education:
· Entered the Lyceum in 1811 which was only open for 'select' noblemen's' sons
· Graduated from the Lyceum in 1817
· Taught by the great poet Vasily Zhukovsky
Major Accomplishments:
· Wrote his first published poem, To a Poet Friend at the age of 14
· Wrote Freedom in 1817, but wasn't published until his death
· Ruslan and Ludmila, written in 1820 was his first major poem
· Wrote several dramas including Boris Godunov in 1831
· Wrote his masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, in 1823-31 which later became a Tchaikovsky opera
Significance:
· Worked for the liberation of literature from the old ways
· His work, Eugene Onegin, is the standard by which Russian literature of the 18th and 19th centuries is measured
· Some compare his talent and influence in Russia to Shakespeare
Contemporaries:
· Victor Hugo - French Poet
· Napoleon Bonaparte - French Emperor and Conqueror
· Michael Faraday - English Physicist
For Further Information About Aleksandr Pushkin
· More Biographical Information
· A Collection of Pushkin's poems
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The Sandcastle
by Iris Murdoch

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A splendid early Iris Murdoch novel, with a deceptively simple plot about a married man falling in love with a clever young woman, providing scope for a lot of interesting speculation about the nature of relationships between people, the purpose of representation in art, the proper role of education, and of course the difficulty of building sandcastles on Mediterranean beaches. In between, there's a lot of ironic deflation of pretensions, some French farce, and a sinister gypsy who keeps turning up for no obvious reason.While it seems likely that the "other woman" was modelled on herself, Murdoch perversely tells the story mostly from the husband's POV, and even more oddly chooses the very masculine world of a boys' boarding school as the setting for her story. There's even a cricket match scene: whilst her young heroine may feel obliged to apologise for turning up for a tour of the school in trousers, Murdoch is making no apologies here for trampling all over the privileged territory of British male writers. Perhaps not exactly the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of Angry Young Men, but certainly a bit of bucket and spade work to assist the action of the incoming tide... ( )
thorold May 16, 2009
I can understand how some people don't take to Murdoch at all. There is a lot of naval-gazing going on in most of her books and not a great deal of action, but I just love her voice and the calm, poised way she writes and as far as I'm concerned she can (or I suppose I should say 'could') do no wrong. The Sandcastle is a fairly simple story about a forbidden love and a man tackling his mid-life crisis. As always in Murdoch's books, the real 'action' isn't in the events that take place, but in the emotions of the innocent people caught up in a tide of events over which they have no control. I'm not sure I will ever discover another Murdoch book quite as perfect as The Bell and The Sea, The Sea, my personal favourites, but this one comes close. ( )
1 Booksloth Nov 20, 2008
Excellent novel, this Iris Murdoch's third novel to be published, is more domestic, and a much maturer work than her first two novels. School master William Mor, married to Nan, with two teenage children, a man with political ambitions, finds himself enchanted by Rain Carter the young woman who comes to paint the retired headmaster's portrait. It is interesting how as their relationship develops, Rain and Bill reamin totally sympathetic as characters, it is Nan - the wronged wife who it is impossible to like.
Heaven-Ali Mar 6, 2008
Vivid portrayal of an era when marriage breakdown was still viewed with disapproval. Brilliant character portrayal of the manipulative and vile wife. The 'other woman' was clearly Iris. ( )
mabe Jul 31, 2007
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The Sandcastle (novel)

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The quiet life of schoolmaster Bill Mor and his wife Nan is disturbed when a young woman, Rain Carter, arrives at the school to paint the portrait of the headmaster. Mor, hoping to enter politics, becomes aware of new desires. A complex battle develops, involving love, guilt, magic, art and political ambition. Mor's teenage children and their mother fight discreetly and ruthlessly against the invader. The Head, himself enchanted, advises Mor to seize the girl and run. The final decision rests with Rain. Can a 'great love' be purchased at too high a price?
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:04:51 -0500)
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The Sandcastle (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
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At a glance:
· Author: Iris Murdoch
· First Published: 1957
· Type of Work: Philosophical romance
· Time of Work: The mid-1950’s
· Setting: The counties of Surrey and Dorset, England, and London
· Principal Characters: Bill Mor, Nan Mor, Donald Mor, Felicity Mor, Rain Carter
· Genres: Long fiction, Philosophical realism
· Subjects: 1950’s, Teaching or teachers, Freedom, Child rearing or parenting, Family or family life, Love or romance, Social issues, Marriage, England or English people, London, Ethics, Painting or painters
· Locales: England, London, England, Dorset, England, Surrey, England
The Novel
Bill Mor, vaguely dissatisfied with his life, is faced with possibilities and choices which he could not have expected. The novel begins, appropriately, with Bill in verbal combat with his wife, Nan Mor, over his future and the future of their children. Mor wants to run for Parliament; Nan does not want him to do so. He wants his children to go to the university; she sees it as a waste of money. It is clear that Nan usually wins such arguments, and that Bill usually backs down and apologizes. He is determined, this time, to have his way.
The matter is...
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The Sandcastle (novel)
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The Sandcastle

The Sandcastle is a novel by Iris Murdoch, published in 1957. It is the story of a middle-aged schoolmaster (Mor) with political ambitions who meets a young painter (Rain), come to paint the Headmaster's (Demoyte) portrait.

[edit] Characters in "The Sandcastle"
Bill Mor
Nan Mor (Mor's wife)
Felicity Mor (Mor's daughter)
Donald Mor (Mor's son)
Rain Carter
Demoyte (former Headmaster)
"He leaned forward and very carefully enclosed her bare shoulders in his arms. Then he drew her towards him and kissed her gently but fully upon the lips. The experience of touching her was so shattering to him that he had now to hide his face. He let it fall first upon her shoulders, and then, as he felt the roughness of his chin touching her flesh, he bent down and laid his head against her breast."
"Rain's presence made him live so completely from moment to moment that he had not even wondered where they were going"

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Works by Iris Murdoch
Novels:
Under the Net (1954) · The Flight from the Enchanter (1956) · The Sandcastle (1957) · The Bell (1958) · A Severed Head (1961) · An Unofficial Rose (1962) · The Unicorn (1963) · The Italian Girl (1964) · The Red and the Green (1965) · The Time of the Angels (1966) · The Nice and the Good (1968) · Bruno's Dream (1969) · A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970) · An Accidental Man (1971) · The Black Prince (1973) · The Sacred and the Profane Love Machine (1974) · A Word Child (1975) · Henry and Cato (1976) · The Sea, the Sea (1978) · Nuns and Soldiers (1980) · The Philosopher's Pupil (1983) · The Good Apprentice (1985) · The Book and the Brotherhood (1987) · The Message to the Planet (1989) · The Green Knight (1993) · Jackson's Dilemma (1995)
Short stories:
"Something Special" (1957)
Plays:
A Severed Head (with J. B. Priestley, 1964) · The Italian Girl (with James Saunders, 1969) · The Three Arrows & the Servants and the Snow (1973) · The Servants (1980) · Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues (1986) · The Black Prince (1987)
Poetry:
A Year of Birds (1978, rev. 1984) · Poems by Iris Murdoch (1997)
Philosophy:
Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953) · The Sovereignty of Good (1970) · The Fire and the Sun (1977) · Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (1992) · Existentialists and Mystics (1997)