John Heath-Stubbs

John Heath-Stubbs (1918-2006) in 1994. Photo by Granville Davis. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs OBE (9 July 1918 - 26 December 2006) was an English poet, literary critic, anthologist, and translator, known for his verse influenced by classical myths, and for the long Arthurian poem Artorius (1972).

Life

Heath-Stubbs was born in London, and educated at Bembridge School and Queen's College, Oxford. His poetry was first published in Eight Oxford Poets  (edited by Sidney Keyes and Michael Meyer) in 1941. He lived for a time in the 1950s at Zennor in Cornwall.

He was a representative figure of British poetry in the early 1950s, and edited the poetry anthology Images of Tomorrow, 1953. he was awarded an OBE and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Although afflicted by blindness from the 1960s, and completely without sight from 1978, he continued to write almost to the end.

Writing

His diction was strong, yet subtle. Running through his work, like that of most romantic poets, was a nostalgia for 'classicism'. He was consciously literary, and his work was elaborately wrought rather than spontaneous, so it was not the kind of poetry likely to have mass appeal. However, his devotion to the craft of poetry makes his work impressive. Few writers of his time had a deeper knowledge of the English language, or cared for it more devotedly.

Recognition

Heath-Stubbs was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and the St. Augustine Cross. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1988.

Ibycus: A poem by John Heath-Stubbs, a documentary film, was made by the Chilean director Carlos Klein in 1997.

Publications

Poetry

• Wounded Thammuz. London: Routledge, 1942.
• Beauty and the Beast. London: Routledge, 1943.
• The Divided Ways. London: Routledge, 1947.
• The Charity of the Stars. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1949.
• The Swarming of the Bees. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950.
• A Charm Against the Toothache. London: Methuen, 1954.
• The Triumph of the Muse, and other poems. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1958.
• The Blue-Fly in His Head. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.
• Selected Poems. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Satires and Epigrams. London: Turret, 1968.
• Penguin Modern Poets 20 (John Heath-Stubbs, F.T. Prince, & Stephen Spender). London: Penguin, 1972.
• Artorius: A heroic poem in four books and eight episodes. London: Enitharmon Press, 1973.
• The Watchman's Flute. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1978.
• Birds Reconvened. London: Enitharmon Press, 1980.
• Naming the Beasts. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1982.
• New Poems. Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, UK: Other Branch Readings, 1983.
• The Immolation of Aleph. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1985.
• Cat's Parnassus (illustrated by Emily Johns). London: Hearing Eye, 1987.
• Collected Poems 1942-1987. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1988.
• Time Pieces. London: Hearing Eye, 1988.
• A Partridge in a Pear Tree: Poems for the twelve days of Christmas (illustrated by Emily Johns). London: Hearing Eye, 1988.
• A Ninefold Of Charms (illustrated by Emily Johns). London: Hearing Eye, 1989.
• The Game of Love and Death. Petersfield, UK: Enitharmon Press, 1990.
• The Parson's Cat (illustrations by Emily Johns). London: Hearing Eye, 1992.
• Sweet-Apple Earth. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1993.
• Chimaeras (illustrated by Emily Johns). London: Hearing Eye, 1994.
• Galileo's Salad. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1996.
• The Torriano Sequences. London: Hearing Eye, 1997.
• The Sound of Light. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1999.
• The Return of the Cranes (illustrated by Hammond Journeaux). Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 2002.
• Pigs Might Fly. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 2005.

Plays

• Helen in Egypt, and other plays. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.

Non-fiction

• The Darkling Plain: A study of the later fortunes of romanticism in English poetry from George Darley to W.B. Yeats. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950.
• Charles Williams. London: British Council, 1955.
• Dryden's Mind and Art. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1969.
• The Pastoral. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.
• The Ode. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.
• The Verse-Satire. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.
• Hindsights: An autobiography. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1993.
• The Literary Essays of John Heath-Stubbs (edited by A.T. Tolley). Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1998.

Translated

• Hafiz of Shiraz, Thirty Poems: An introduction to the Sufi master (translated with Peter Avery). London: John Murray, 1952.
• Dust and Carnations: Traditional funeral chants and wedding songs from Egypt. London: TR Press, 1977.
• Omar Khayyam, The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam. Penguin, 1981.
• The Poems of Sulpicia. London: Hearing Eye, 2000.

Edited

• The Forsaken Garden: An anthology of poetry, 1824-1909. London: John Lehmann, 1950.
• The Faber Book of Twentieth-Century Verse: An anthology of verse in Britain, 1900-1950 (edited with David Wright). London: Faber, 1953.
• Images of Tomorrow: An anthology of recent poetry. London: SCM, 1953.
• Alexander Pope, Selected Poems. London: Heinemann, 1964.
• Festival poetry, '65: thirty poems selected from work of East London poets ... for the Six Boroughs Festival of Art, 1965. London: Elam (for East London Society of Arts), 1965.
• Thomas Gray. Selected Poems. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1981.
• Poems of Science (edited with Phillips Salman). London: Penguin, 1984.
• David Gray, In the Shadows. London: Hearing Eye, 1991.
• Sulpicia, The Poems of Sulpicia. London: Hearing Eye, 2000.

"Epitaph" by John Heath-Stubbs (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets
• List of literary critics

External links

Poems

• John Heath-Stubbs poem ("The Poet of Bray") at the Academy of American Poets
• John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs at PoemHunter (2 poems)

Audio / video

• John Heath-Stubbs (1918-2006) at The Poetry Archive

Bookx

John Heath-Stubbs at Amazon.com

About

• Poet John Heath-Stubbs dies at 88, BBC News. 26 December 2006
• Obituary, The Independent, 27 December 2006
• Obituary, The Guardian, 29 December 2006
• Interview from 1989