Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Stephen Spender (English Poet, Critic)

Stephen Harold Spender (1909–95) was an English poet, critic, translator, travel writer, and man of letters. He first came to prominence in the 1930s with poems that characterized the politically conscience-stricken, leftist “new writing” of that age.

Born in London, Spender attended Oxford’s University College. His Poems (1933) comprised both personal and political poems, including ‘The Pylons’—they lent the name to the group of young left-wing poets of the 1930s known as the ‘Pylon School.’ This group included W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Louis MacNeice.

Spender’s influential work, The Destructive Element (1935,) defended the importance of the political subject matter in literature. He also wrote in verse the anti-fascist tragedy Trial of a Judge (1938) for the Group Theatre. He translated Ernst Toller, Friedrich Schiller, Rainer Maria Rilke, Federico Garcia Lorca, and others, in addition to writing abundant literary criticism.

In later decades, Spender’s writing became increasingly autobiographical. His reputation for humanism, honesty, and subjective experience is manifest in later volumes—Ruins and Visions (1942,) Poems of Dedication (1947,) The Edge of Being (1949,) Collected Poems (1955,) Selected Poems (1965,) The Generous Days (1971,) and Dolphins (1994.)

Spender’s autobiography, World within World (1951,) is a powerful evocation of the generation. His Collected Poems 1928–85 appeared in 1985.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Stephen Spender

Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.
Stephen Spender
Topics: Confidence, Assurance, Poetry

When a child, my dreams rode on your wishes, I was your son, high on your horse, My mind a top whipped by the lashes Of your rhetoric, windy of course.
Stephen Spender
Topics: Wishes

There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife—a tyrannical midwife.
Stephen Spender
Topics: Criticism

I think of those who were truly great. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire’s center.
Stephen Spender
Topics: Courage, Bravery, Living

History is the ship carrying living memories to the future
Stephen Spender
Topics: History

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *