Harrison, Tony

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

Harrison, Tony (1937– ), poet and translator, born in Leeds, educated at Leeds University. Memories of his working-class childhood provide the material for much of his poetry; his works also reflect his travels in Africa, the Soviet Union, and America. His volumes include The Loiners (1970), From ‘The School of Eloquence’ and Other Poems (1978), and Continuous (1981). He has also written verse translations of Molière's The Misanthrope (1973), Racine's Phèdre (Phaedra Britannica, 1975), and the Oresteia (1981). Both his original works and his translations show a great facility in rhyme and a skilful adaptation of colloquial speech. Other volumes include V (1985), written during the miners' strike of 1984–5, Loving Memory (1987), The Blasphemers' Banquet (1989), Selected Poems (1984, rev. 1987), V and Other Poems (1990), A Cold Coming: Gulf War Poems (1992), The Gaze of the Gorgon (1992; Whitbread Award for poetry), and Laureate's Block (2000). Harrison is renowned for his independent voice and impassioned commentary on public affairs.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Harrison, Tony." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Harrison, Tony." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-HarrisonTony.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Harrison, Tony." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-HarrisonTony.html

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