Elizabeth Jennings : "the inward war" / Dana Greene.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Greene, Dana, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jennings, Elizabeth, 1926-2001.

Jennings, Elizabeth.

Poets, English--20th century--Biography.

Poets, English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 258 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2018.

Language Note:

Text in English.

Summary:

Elizabeth Jennings was one of the most popular, prolific, and widely anthologized lyric poets in the second half of the twentieth century. This biography, based on extensive archival research and interviews with Jennings's contemporaries, integrates her life and work and explores the 'inward war' the poet experienced as a result of her gender, religion, and mental fragility. Originally associated with a group of English poets known as 'the Movement,' Jennings was sui generis, believing poetry was 'communication' and 'communion.' She wrote of nature, friendship, childhood, religion, love, and art, which endeared her to a wide audience. Yet lifelong depression, unbearable loneliness, unrelenting fears, poverty, and physical illness plagued her. These were exacerbated by her gender in a male-dominated literary world and an inherited Catholic worldview which initially inculcated guilt and shame. However, a tenacious drive to be a poet made her "the most unconditionally loved writer of her generation." Her life is tracked in her voluminous published and unpublished poetry and prose. The themes of mental illness, the importance of place, the problems associated with being an unmarried woman artist, her relationship with literary mentors and younger poets, her non-feminist feminism, and her marginality and sympathy for the outcast are all explored.

Contents:

Prologue: Finding Elizabeth Jennings

1. Bliss

2. Oxford

3. A Saving Experience

4. Coming up to Oxford

5. Breaking into Print

6. The Movement

7. Rome

8. Poetic Vocation

9. The Darkness

10. Breakdown

11. Writing in the Dark

12. "As I Am"

13. The Interim

14. Revival

15. Grief 's Surgery

16. Reprieve

17. Halcyon Days

18. National Acclaim

19. Dislocation

20. Assurance beyond Midnight

Epilogue: Life as Poetry, Poetry as Life.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-255283-X

0-19-256205-3