Dictionary of Literary Biography: Poets of Great Britain and Ireland, 1945-60

The fifteen years following World War II are an identifiable period in the history of modern British poetry and have been covered in this DLB volume through 44 biographical profiles. While few poets of the period dealt directly and intelligently with the atrocities of the War, a group of poets known as The Movement emerged in the mid-1950s with a shared determination to avoid both the ideological extremes of the recent War and the emotional excesses of romanticism. The Movement poets were cynical about the previous decade, emphasizing control through poetic form and wit. They used traditional poetic forms, resulting in a certain hollowness and mechanical quality. Another group during this time period voiced a reaction to The Movement poets, questioning their neat formulas, challenging their concrete setting, and realistic characters. These poets opposed to The Movement used symbolist techniques and mythic or religious subjects, and ranged far from the central, normative styles of their predecessors in the previous decade.

44 entries include: Dannie Abse, Kingsley Amis, Robert Conquest, Donald Davie, D.J. Enright, Thom Gunn, John Holloway, Elizabeth Jennings, Thomas Kinsella, Philip Larkin, R.S. Thomas and John Wain.