Frederick Louis MacNeice (September 12, 1907 – September 3, 1963) was a British and Irish poet and playwright. He was part of the generation of "thirties poets" which included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and C. Day Lewis. His body of work was widely appreciated by the public during his lifetime, due in part to his relaxed but socially and emotionally aware style. Never as overtly (or simplistically) political as some of his contemporaries, his work shows a humane opposition to totalitarianism as well as an acute awareness of his Irish roots. September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years). ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... A poet is some one who writes poetry. ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... Christopher Isherwood (left) and W.H. Auden (right), photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) was an English poet, often cited as one of the most influential of the 20th century. ... Sir Stephen Harold Spender (February 28, 1909 – July 16, 1995) was an English poet and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. ... Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis) (27th April 1904-22nd May 1972) was a British poet. ...

Poetry in my opinion must be honest before anything else and I refuse to be 'objective' or clear-cut at the cost of honesty. (Introduction to Autumn Journal)

Image File history File links Macneice_longley. ...

Life

Ireland, 1907–1917

Louis MacNeice (known as Freddie until his teens, when he adopted his middle name) was born in Belfast, the youngest son of John and Lily MacNeice. Both were originally from the west of Ireland, where they were members of the Church of Ireland, Anglicans who had home rule sympathies. John MacNeice was Rector of St Clement's, and in 1908 he was appointed to the church of St Nicholas in Carrickfergus, where the family was to remain. Louis's siblings were Elizabeth (1903–81) and William (1905–68). Lily MacNeice died in December 1914 after a series of illnesses including uterine cancer, depression and finally tuberculosis (MacNeice later described the cause of his mother's death as "obscure", and blamed his mother's cancer on his own difficult birth). William, who had Down's syndrome, had been sent to live in an institution in Scotland during his mother's terminal illness. Shortly after John MacNeice married Georgina Greer in early 1917, Elizabeth was sent to board at a preparatory school in Sherborne, England. Louis joined his sister in Sherborne later in the year, at a different school. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating seamlessly across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. ... The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... Devolution or Home rule is the pooling of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ... The word rector (ruler, from the Latin regere) has a number of different meanings. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... A preparatory school, or prep. ... See also: Sherborne, Gloucestershire Sherborne is an affluent market town in north west Dorset, England, situated on the River Yeo and A30 road, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale six miles east of Yeovil. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001...

School, 1917–1926

MacNeice was generally happy at Sherborne, which gave an education concentrating on the classics (Greek and Latin) and literature (including the memorising of poetry). He was an enthusiastic sportsman, something which continued when he moved to Marlborough College in 1921, having won a classical scholarship. Marlborough was a less happy place, with a hierarchical and sometimes cruel social structure, but MacNeice's interest in ancient literature and civilisation deepened and expanded to include Egyptian and Norse mythology. He was a contemporary of John Betjeman and Anthony Blunt, forming a lifelong friendship with the latter, and writing poetry and essays for the school magazines. By the end of his time at the school, MacNeice was sharing a study with Blunt and also sharing his aesthetic tastes (though not his sexual ones – Blunt said MacNeice was "totally, irredeemably heterosexual"). In November 1925, MacNeice was awarded a "Postmastership" scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, and he left Marlborough in the summer of the following year. Classics, particularly within the Western University tradition, when used as a singular noun, means the study of the language, literature, history, art, and other aspects of Greek and Roman culture during the time frame known as classical antiquity. ... Marlborough College is a British boarding school in the county of Wiltshire, founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, although it now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. ... Sir John Betjeman (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Whos Who as a poet and hack. He was born to a middle class family in Edwardian London. ... Anthony Frederick Blunt (September 26, 1907 – March 26, 1983) was an English art historian and the Fourth Man of the Cambridge Five, a group of spies working for the Soviet Union during the Cold War. ... Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...

Oxford, 1926–1930

It was during his first year as a student at Oxford that MacNeice first met W. H. Auden, who had gained himself a reputation as the University's foremost poet during the preceding year. Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis were already part of Auden's circle, but MacNeice's closest Oxford friends were John Hilton and Graham Shepard, who had been with him at Marlborough. MacNeice threw himself into the aesthetic culture, publishing poetry in literary magazines The Cherwell and Sir Galahad, organising candle-lit readings of Shelley and Marlow, and visiting Paris with Hilton. In 1928 he was introduced to the classics don John Beazley and his stepdaughter Mary Ezra. A year later he thought to soften the news that he had been arrested for drunkenness by telegraphing his father to say he was engaged to be married. John MacNeice (by now Archdeacon of Connor, and a Bishop a few years later) was horrified to discover his son was engaged to a Jew, and Ezra's family demanded assurances that William's Down's syndrome was not hereditary. Amidst this turmoil, Blind Fireworks was published by Gollancz, dedicated to "Giovanna" (Mary's full name was Giovanna Marie Thérèse Babette). In 1930 the couple were married at Oxford Registry Office, neither set of parents attending the ceremony. He was awarded a first-class degree in literae humaniores, and had already gained an appointment as Assistant Lecturer in Classics at the University of Birmingham. Christopher Isherwood (left) and W.H. Auden (right), photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973) was an English poet, often cited as one of the most influential of the 20th century. ... Sir Stephen Harold Spender (February 28, 1909 – July 16, 1995) was an English poet and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. ... Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis) (27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972) was an Anglo-Irish poet. ... Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792 – July 8, 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets who wrote in the English language. ... Christopher Marlowe (baptised February 26, 1564–May 30, 1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 3 miles behind. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Sir John Davidson Beazley (1885 - 1970) was an English Classical scholar. ... An archdeacon is a senior position in some Christian churches, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. ... Connor may refer to: People Connor (Angel) Connor MacLeod, main character from the Highlander movies Bull Connor, segregationist Roger Connor, baseball player Connor (Diega), a ruler of Ewe state of Peki (Krepi) Connor, king of Israel (1069-1102) Places Connor, Maine Connor, a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland There... A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ... Victor Gollancz Ltd was a British book publisher founded by Victor Gollancz in 1927; its most notable authors were George Orwell and Ford Madox Ford. ... The University of Birmingham is an English university in the city of Birmingham. ...

Birmingham, 1930–1936

The newlyweds were found lodgings in Birmingham by E. R. Dodds and his wife – Dodds was Professor of Greek (and later to be MacNeice's literary executor), and his wife Bet was a lecturer in the Department of English. The MacNeices lived in a former coachman's cottage in the grounds of a house in Selly Park belonging to another professor, Philip Sargant Florence. Birmingham was a very different university (and city) to Oxford, MacNeice was not a natural lecturer, and he found it difficult to write poetry. He turned instead to a semi-autobiographical novel, Roundabout Way, which was published in 1932 under the name of Louis Malone (as he feared a novel by an academic would not be favourably reviewed). E.R.Dodds was a 20th century British classical scholar. ... A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of the literary estate of an author who has died. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ...

The local Classical Association included G. A. Auden, Professor of Public Health and father of W.H. Auden, and by 1932 MacNeice and Auden's Oxford acquaintance had turned into a close friendship. Auden knew many Marxists, and Blunt had also become a communist by this time, but MacNeice (although sympathetic to the left) was always sceptical of easy answers and "the armchair reformist". The Strings are False (written at the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact) describes his wish for a change in society and even revolution, but also his intellectual opposition to Marxism and especially the glib communism embraced by many of his friends. Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907–September 29, 1973) was an English poet. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical philosophy based on Marxism. ... Molotov signs the German-Soviet non-aggression pact. ...

MacNeice started to write poetry again, and in January 1933 he and Auden led the first edition of Geoffrey Grigson's magazine New Verse. MacNeice also started sending poems to T. S. Eliot at around this time, and although Eliot did not feel that they merited Faber and Faber publishing a volume of poems, several were published in Eliot's journal The Criterion. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Geoffrey Grigson (2nd March 1905 - 1985) was an English writer. ... T.S. Eliot (by E.O. Hoppe, 1919) Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965) was an American-born poet, dramatist, and literary critic, whose works, such as The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, and Four Quartets, are considered defining achievements of twentieth... Faber and Faber is a celebrated publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing the poetry of T. S. Eliot. ...

On the 15th of May 1934, Louis and Mary's son Daniel John MacNeice was born. In September of that year, MacNeice travelled to Dublin with Dodds (who had republican sympathies) and met William Butler Yeats. Unsuccessful attempts at playwriting and another novel were followed in September 1935 by Poems, the first of his collections for Faber and Faber. In November, Mary left MacNeice and their infant son for a Russian-American graduate student called Charles Katzmann. MacNeice engaged a nurse to look after Dan, and his sister and stepmother also helped on occasion. In early 1936, Blunt and MacNeice visited Spain shortly after the election of the Popular Front government. Auden and MacNeice travelled to Iceland in the summer of that year, which resulted in Letters from Iceland, a collection of poems, letters (some in verse) and essays. In October MacNeice left Birmingham for a lecturing post in the Department of Greek at Bedford College for Women, part of the University of London. Fianna Fáil - The Republican Party (IPA ; English translation: Soldiers of Ireland, but traditionally translated as Soldiers of Destiny) is the largest political party in Ireland. ... W.B. Yeats in Dublin on 24 January 1908. ... Bedford College was founded in London, England, in 1849 as a higher education college for the education of women. ... Senate House, designed by Charles Holden, home to the universitys central administrative offices and its library The University of London is a federation of colleges and institutes which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ...

London, 1936–1940

MacNeice moved into Geoffrey Grigson's former flat in Hampstead with Daniel and his nurse. His translation of Aeschylus's Agamemnon was published in late 1936, and shortly afterwards his divorce from Mary was finalised. They continued to write frequent affectionate letters to one another, although Mary married Katzmann shortly after the divorce, and MacNeice started an affair with Nancy Coldstream. Nancy was, like her husband Bill, a painter and a friend of Auden (who had introduced the couple to MacNeice while they were in Birmingham). MacNeice and Nancy visited the Hebrides in 1937, which resulted in a book written by MacNeice with illustrations by Nancy, I Crossed the Minch. August saw the appearance of Letters from Iceland (which had been finished by the two authors in MacNeice's London home the previous year), and towards the end of the year a play called Out of the Picture was published and performed on stage (music was written for the production by Benjamin Britten, as he had done previously for Agamemnon). In 1938, Faber and Faber published a second collection of poems, The Earth Compels, the Oxford University Press published Modern Poetry, and Nancy once again contributed illustrations to a book about London Zoo, called simply Zoo. Hampstead is a place in the London Borough of Camden and near to Hampstead Heath. ... Aeschylus This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Nancy Spender (1909-2001) was an English painter. ... Sir William Coldstream (1908-1987) was an English painter. ... The Hebrides The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, and in geological terms are composed of the oldest rocks in the British Isles. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, OM (November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976) was a British composer, conductor and pianist. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ...

As the year (and his relationship with Nancy) drew to a close, he started work on Autumn Journal. By Christmas, Nancy was in love with Stephen Spender's brother Michael (who she was later to marry), and at the end of the year MacNeice visited Barcelona shortly before the city fell to Francisco Franco. The poem was finished by February 1939, and published in May. It is widely viewed as MacNeice's masterpiece, recording his feelings as the Spanish civil war raged and the United Kingdom headed towards war with Germany, as well as his personal concerns and reflections over the past decade. Sir Stephen Harold Spender (February 28, 1909 – July 16, 1995) was an English poet and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work. ... Barcelona is the capital city of Catalonia, an autonomous community in Spain. ... Francisco Franco Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde (pron. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Spanish Civil War (July 18, 1936–April 1, 1939) was a conflict in which the incumbent Second Spanish Republic and political left-wing groups fought against a right-wing nationalist insurrection led by General Francisco Franco, who eventually succeeded in ousting the Republican government and establishing a personal dictatorship. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

During the Easter vacation that year, MacNeice made a brief lecture tour of various American universities, also meeting up with Mary and Charles Katzmann and giving a reading with Auden and Christopher Isherwood in New York (attended by John Berryman, and at which Auden met Chester Kallman for the first time). MacNeice also met the writer Eleanor Clark in New York, and arranged to spend the next academic year on sabbatical so that he could be with her. A lectureship at Cornell University was organised, and in December 1939 MacNeice sailed for America, leaving his son in Ireland. Cornell proved a success but the relationship with Eleanor did not, and MacNeice was back in London by the end of 1940. He worked as a freelance journalist (he had resigned from his lecturing position at Bedford College while in America) and was awaiting the publication of Plant and Phantom, which was dedicated to Clark (the previous year, the Cuala Press had published The Last Ditch, a limited edition containing some poems which would appear in the new volume). In early 1941, MacNeice was employed by the BBC. Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Christopher Isherwood (prior to 1946 Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood) (August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986), Anglo-American novelist, was born in the ancestral seat of his family, Wybersley Hall, High Lane, in the north west of England. ... John Berryman (originally John Smith) (October 25, 1914 - January 7, 1972) was an American poet, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. ... Chester Kallman (7 January 1921 – 18 January 1975) was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for his collaborations with Igor Stravinsky Kallman was born in Brooklyn. ... Cornell redirects here. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The Cuala Press was set up in 1904 by William Butler Yeats and his sister Elizabeth. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the largest publicly-funded radio and television broadcasting corporation of the United Kingdom (see British television) and the world. ...

War and afterwards, 1941–1963

MacNeice's work for the BBC initially involved writing and producing radio programmes intended to build support for the USA, and later Russia – cultural programmes emphasising links between the countries rather than outright propaganda. A critical work on W. B. Yeats (which he had been working on since the poet's death in 1939) was published early in 1941, as were Plant and Phantom and Poems 1925–1940 (an American anthology). At the end of the year, MacNeice started a relationship with Hedli Anderson, and they were married in July 1942, three months after the death of his father. Brigid Corinna MacNeice (known by her second name like her parents, or as "Bimba") was born a year later. By the end of the war MacNeice had written well over sixty scripts for the BBC and a further collection of poems, Springboard. The radio play Christopher Columbus, produced in 1942 and later published as a book, featured music by William Walton, conducted by Adrian Boult, and starred Laurence Olivier. 1943's He Had a Date (loosely based on the life and death of MacNeice's friend Graham Shepard but also semi-autobiographical) was also published, as was The Dark Tower (1946, again with music by Britten). Dylan Thomas acted in some of MacNeice's plays during this period, and the two poets (both heavy drinkers) also became social companions. U.S. propaganda poster, depicting a Nazi stabbing a Bible. ... W.B. Yeats in Dublin on 24 January 1908. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... Antoinette Millicent Hedley Anderson (1907 - 1990) was an English singer and actor. ... This article is about the year. ... Christopher Columbus (ca. ... Sir William Walton on the set of one of his operas Sir William Turner Walton, OM (March 29, 1902–March 8, 1983) was a British composer whose style was influenced by the works of Stravinsky, Sibelius and jazz. ... Sir Adrian Cedric Boult (April 8, 1889 - February 22, 1983) was an English conductor. ... Laurence Olivier, as photographed in 1939 by Carl Van Vechten Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907–11 July 1989) was an Oscar winning English actor and director, regarded by many critics as the greatest actor of the 20th century. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Dylan Marlais Thomas, (October 27, 1914 – November 9, 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer. ...

In 1947, the BBC sent MacNeice to report on Indian independence and partition, and he continued to produce plays for the corporation, including a six-part radio adaptation of Goethe's Faust in 1949. 1948's collection of poems, Holes in the Sky, met with a less favourable reception than previous books. In 1950 he was given eighteen months' leave to become Director of the British Institute in Athens, run by the British Council. Patrick Leigh Fermor had previously been Deputy Director of the Institute, and he and his wife became close friends of the MacNeices. Ten Burnt Offerings, poems written in Greece, were broadcast by the BBC in 1951 and published the following year. The MacNeices returned to England in August 1951, and Dan (who had been at an English boarding school) left for America in early 1952 to stay with his mother, to avoid national service. Dan would return to England in 1953, but went to live permanently with his mother after a legal battle with MacNeice. 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Britains holdings on the Indian subcontinent were granted independence in 1947 and 1948, becoming four new independent states: India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan (including East Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh). ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Faust (Latin Faustus) is the protagonist of a popular German tale of a pact with the Devil, assumed to be based on the figure of the German magician and alchemist Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480-1540). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína (IPA: )) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. ... The British Council is a partly UK Government-funded cultural relations organisation and a registered charity in the United Kingdom. ... Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor, known as Paddy, (born 11 February 1915, London) is a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Battle of Crete during World War II. He is famous in the genre of travel literature. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... National service describes a form of military service in which all citizens (or all male citizens) of one particular nation can participate, either voluntarily or (more often) non-voluntarily. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ...

In 1953 MacNeice wrote Autumn Sequel, a long autobiographical poem in terza rima, which critics compared unfavourably with Autumn Journal. The death of Dylan Thomas came partway through the writing of the poem, and MacNeice involved himself in memorials for the poet and attempts to raise money for his family. 1953 and 1954 brought lecture and performance tours of the USA (husband and wife would present an evening of song, monologue and poetry readings), and meetings with John Berryman (on the returning boat in 1953, and later in London) and Eleanor Clark (by now married to Robert Penn Warren). MacNeice travelled to Egypt in 1955 and Ghana in 1956 on lengthy assignments for the BBC. Another poorly received collection of poems, Visitations, was published in 1957, and the MacNeices bought a holiday home on the Isle of Wight from J. B. Priestley (an acquaintance since MacNeice's arrival in London twenty years earlier). However, the marriage was starting to become strained. MacNeice was drinking increasingly heavily, and having more or less serious affairs with other women. 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... John Berryman (originally John Smith) (October 25, 1914 - January 7, 1972) was an American poet, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. ... Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 - September 15, 1989) was an American poet and novelist. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Priestley at the microphone during one of his Second World War broadcasts John Matthew Smith Priestley, OM (September 13, 1894, Bradford, England - August 14, 1984, Stratford-upon-Avon) was an English writer and broadcaster. ...

MacNeice was awarded the CBE in the 1958 New Year's Honours list. A South African trip in 1959 was followed by the start of his final relationship, with the actress Mary Wimbush, who had performed in his plays since the forties. Hedli asked MacNeice to leave the family home in late 1960. In early 1961, Solstices was published, and in the middle of the year MacNeice became a half-time employee at the BBC, leaving him six months a year to work on his own projects. By this time he was "living on alcohol", and eating very little, but still writing (including a commissioned work on astrology, which he viewed as "hack-work"). In August 1963 he went caving in Yorkshire to gather sound effects for his final radio play, Persons from Porlock. Caught in a storm on the moors, he did not change out of his wet clothes until he was home in Hertfordshire. Bronchitis evolved into viral pneumonia, and he was admitted to hospital on the 27th of August, dying there on the 3rd of September. He was buried in Carrowdore churchyard in County Down, with his mother. His final book of poems, The Burning Perch, was published a few days after his funeral – Auden, who gave a reading at MacNeice's memorial service, described the poems of his last two years as "among his very best". Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mary Wimbush (March 19, 1924 — October 31, 2005) was a British actress, whose career spanned sixty years from the 1940s to the 2000s. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Hertfordshire (pronounced Har(t)fordshire and abbreviated as Herts) is an inland county in the United Kingdom, officially part of the East of England Government region. ... Bronchitis is an obstructive pulmonary disease characterized by inflammation of the bronchi of the lungs. ... Pneumonia is an illness of the lungs and respiratory system in which the microscopic, air-filled sacs (alveoli) responsible for absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere become inflamed and flooded with fluid. ... Carrowdore is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the Ards Peninsula. ... County Down, (An Dún in Irish) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, covering an area of 2,448 km² (945 square miles). ...

Influence

MacNeice has inspired many poets since his death, particularly those from the North of Ireland. There has been a movement to reclaim him as an Irish writer rather than a satellite of Auden (e.g. K. Devine and A. J. Peacock, Louis MacNeice and His Influence, ISBN 0-86140-391-6). Michael Longley has edited two selections of his work, and Paul Muldoon gives more space to MacNeice than to any other author in his Faber Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry (which covers the period from the death of W. B. Yeats until 1986). Muldoon and Derek Mahon have both written elegies for MacNeice, Mahon's coming after a pilgrimage to the poet's grave in the company of Longley and Seamus Heaney in 1965. At the time of MacNeice's death, John Berryman described him as "one of my best friends", and wrote an elegy in Dream Song #267. Michael Longley (b. ... Paul Muldoon (b. ... A 1907 engraving of Yeats. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Derek Mahon (born 1941) is an Irish poet. ... Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (born April 13, 1939) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ...

Works

Poetry

• Blind Fireworks (1929, mainly considered by MacNeice to be juvenilia and excluded from the 1949 Collected Poems)
• Poems (1935)
• Letters from Iceland (1937, with W H Auden, poetry and prose)
• The Earth Compels (1938)
• Autumn Journal (1939)
• The Last Ditch (1940)
• Plant and Phantom (1941)
• Springboard (1944)
• Holes in the Sky (1948)
• Collected Poems, 1925-1948 (1949)
• Ten Burnt Offerings (1952)
• Autumn Sequel (1954)
• Visitations (1957)
• Solstices (1961)
• The Burning Perch (1963)

• Selected Poems (1964, edited by W. H. Auden)
• Collected Poems (1966, edited by E. R. Dodds)
• Selected Poems (1988, edited by Michael Longley)

1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907–September 29, 1973) was an English poet. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Michael Longley (b. ...

Plays

• The Agamemnon (1936, translation of Aeschylus)
• Out of the Picture (1937)
• Christopher Columbus (1944, radio)
• He Had a Date (1944, radio)
• The Dark Tower (1946, radio)
• Faust (1949, translation of Goethe)
• The Administrator (1961, radio)
• The Mad Islands (1962, radio)
• Persons from Porlock (1963, radio)
• Prayer befor Birth

MacNeice also wrote several plays which were never produced, and many for the BBC which were never published. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Aeschylus This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ...

Fiction

• Roundabout Way (1932, as "Louis Malone")
• The Sixpence That Rolled Away (1956, for children)

1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Non-fiction

• I Crossed the Minch (1938, travel)
• Modern Poetry (1938, criticism)
• Zoo (1938)
• The Strings Are False (1941, published 1965, autobiography)
• Astrology (1964)
• Varieties of Parable (1965, criticism)

1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ...

References

• Longley, Michael (Ed. and introduction) (1988). Louis MacNeice: Selected Poems. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-15270-8
• MacNeice, Louis (1965). The Strings are False. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-11832-1
• Stallworthy, John (1995). Louis MacNeice. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-17687-9

Faber and Faber is a celebrated publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing the poetry of T. S. Eliot. ... Faber and Faber is a celebrated publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing the poetry of T. S. Eliot. ... Faber and Faber is a celebrated publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing the poetry of T. S. Eliot. ...

External links

• http://members.aol.com/carrickman/macneice.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/getwritingni/wh_macneice.shtml
• MacNeice's Grave