C Day Lewis

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Day-Lewis, Cecil (1904–72) (who wrote as C. Day Lewis), was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he was befriended by Bowra and became associated with a group of young left-wing poets of which Auden was the acknowledged leader, and with whom he edited Oxford Poetry (1927). (The nickname ‘MacSpaunday’ was coined by R. Campbell: see also Pylon school.) He joined the Communist Party in 1936 and edited a socialist symposium, The Mind in Chains (1937), with contributions from Upward, Madge, R. Warner, and others. These preoccupations are not reflected in his earliest verse (e.g. Beechen Vigil, 1925), but became apparent in Transitional Poem (1929), From Feathers to Iron (1931), and The Magnetic Mountain (1933), which have a strong revolutionary flavour. The title poem of A Time to Dance (1935) more ambiguously celebrates the heroic flight of Parer and M'Intosh to Australia. After the poor reception of Noah and the Waters (1936), a verse morality play about the class struggle, his poetry became more pastoral and personal. During the 1930s he also embarked, under the pseudonym of ‘Nicholas Blake’, on a career as a writer of detective fiction; his first book in this genre, A Question of Proof (1935), introducing his Audenesque detective Nigel Strangeways, was followed by some twenty others. The Friendly Tree (1936) was the first of three largely autobiographical novels.

In 1938 he moved to Musbury, Devon; his poetry of this period (Overtures to Death, 1938; Poems in Wartime, 1940) reflects obvious concerns. He also published in 1940 the first of his translations, a version of Virgil's Georgics. From this time he became an increasingly establishment figure, meanwhile consolidating his literary reputation with a translation of Valéry (1946), further translations of Virgil (The Aeneid, 1952; The Eclogues, 1963), and collections of original verse, including An Italian Visit (1953), recording a journey with R. Lehmann. He was professor of poetry at Oxford (1951–6) and became poet lauriate in 1968.

C. Day Lewis (Cecil Day Lewis), 1904–72, English author, b. Ireland. While he was still at Oxford, he became associated with a group of leftist poets led by W. H. Auden . After graduation he taught at various schools until 1935 and then decided to devote himself to writing. He was professor of poetry at Oxford from 1951 to 1956. Included among his volumes of poetry are Collected Poems 1929–1933 (1935), Overtures to Death (1938), Short Is the Time (1945), Collected Poems (1954), Pegasus and Other Poems (1957), and The Whispering Roots and Other Poems (1970). Lewis was a member of the Communist party from 1935 to 1938, and his early poetry is marked by didacticism and a preoccupation with social themes. His later work, however, is more personal and metaphysical. Besides poetry, C. Day Lewis is noted for the collection of essays A Hope for Poetry (1934); for a verse translation of Vergil's Aeneid (1952); and for detective stories written under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake. From 1967 to 1972 he was poet laureate of Great Britain.

Bibliography: See his autobiography, The Buried Day (1960); biography by J. N. Riddel (1971).

Day-Lewis, Cecil (1904–72) British poet and critic. He was associated with the leftist Auden circle. His concern for social justice is evident in Transitional Poem (1929), Magnetic Mountain (1933), Overtures to Death (1938) and Collected Poems (1954). He was poet laureate from 1968. He also wrote detective fiction under the pseudonym Nicholas Blake.