Cecil Day-Lewis: How Selfhood Begins

Today is the anniversary of the death of Anglo-Irish poet Cecil Day-Lewis, a poet I wasn't familiar with. I didn't know he replaced John Masefield as Poet Laureate in 1968 until his death in 1972. 

I learned his mother died when he was 2 years old, and was brought up by his aunt; and that his father was a protestant clergyman. 

No great stories or anecdotes, just his achingly good poem: 'Walking Away' - a long-held, haunting memory of parting with his young son Sean at school.

 'A Hard Frost' is exquisite, too:

He has some advice on what makes for good poetry:

   

Needing to supplement his earnings as a poet, and repair his roof, he wrote a series of crime novels, under the pseudonym: Nicholas Blake, featuring detective Nigel Strangeways, modeled on W. H. Auden. 

Poetry feeds the soul; other jobs pay the bills - a secret I'd like to learn! Really pleased to find, and share, his poems in this post.