T. Sturge Moore

"Pan as an Island", woodcut by T. Sturge Moore (1870-1944), circa 1902. Courtesy The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus.

Thomas Sturge Moore (March 4, 1870 - July 18, 1944) was an English poet, prose author and artist.

Life

T. Sturge Moore by Charles Shannon (1863-1937), before 1898. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Moore was educated at Dulwich College, the Croydon Art School, and Lambeth Art School. He was the brother of the philosopher George Edward Moore, one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy. He adopted the name "Sturge" as a way of avoiding confusion with Romantic poet Thomas Moore.

Sturge Moore was a prolific poet and his subjects included, morality, art and the spirit. His debut publication, Two Poems, was printed privately in 1893 and his earliest book of verse, The Vinedresser, was published in 1899. His love for poetry led him to become an active member of the Poetry Recital Society.

He was a long-term friend and correspondent of W.B. Yeats . He was also a playwright, writing a Medea influenced by Yeats's drama and the Japanese Noh style. His earliest (of 31) plays to be produced was Aphrodite against Artemis (1906), staged by the Literary Theatre Club of which he became a member in 1908.

Moore also worked as an illustrator, producing the cover illustrations for 2 of Yeats's books, The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair (1932).

Writing

The Encyclopedia of Literature says that "Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats admired the musical refinement and lyrical fluidity of his poetry. His ‘In Time of War’ is among the finest traditionally elegiac responses to the Great War."

Recognition

Moore's poem "A Duet" was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.

He received a civil list pension in 1920 in recognition of his contribution to literature.

In 1930 he was included in the shortlist of 7 candidates for the position of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.

Publications

Poetry

• The Vinedresser, and other poems. London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, 1899.
• Danae: A poem. London: Hacon & Ricketts / New York: John Lane, 1903.
• Poems. London: Duckworth, 1903.
• The Rout of the Amazons. London: Duckworth, 1903.
• To Leda, and other odes. London: Duckworth, 1904.
• The Gazelles, and other poems. London: Duckworth, 1904.
• The Little School: A posy of rhymes. London: Eragny Press / New York: John Lane, 1905.
• The Sea Is Kind. London: Grant Richards, 1914.
• Nine Poems. London: Halcyon Press, 1930.
• Mystery and Tragedy: Two dramatic poems. London: Cayne Press, 1930.
• Poems: Collected edition. (4 volumes), London: Macmillan, 1931-1933.
• 'Selected Poems of T. Sturge Moore (edited by Marie Appia Moore). London: Macmillan, 1934.
• The Unknown Known, and a dozen odd poems. London: Martin Secker, 1939.
• Twenty-Three Poems. Florence, KY: Robert L. Barth, 1984.

Verse dramas

• Aprhrodite against Artemis: A tragedy. London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, 1901.
• Absalom: A chronicle play in three acts. London: Unicorn Press, 1903.
• The Centaur's Booty. London: Duckworth, 1903.
• Pan's Prophecy. London: Duckworth, 1904.
• Mariamne. London: Duckworth, 1911.
• A Sicilian Idyll, and Judith: A conflict. London: Duckworth, 1911.
• Tragic Mothers: Medea, Niobe, Tyrfing. London: Grant Richard, 1920.
• Judas. London: Grant Richards, 1923.

Non-fiction

• Altdorfer. London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, 1900.
• Albrecht Dürer. London: Duckworth / New York: Scribner's, 1905.
• Corregio. London: Duckworth / New York: Scribner's, 1906.
• Art and Life. London: Methuen, 1910.
• Some Soldier Poets (essays). London: Grant Richards, 1919.
• Armour for Aphrodite. London: Grant Richards / H. Toulmin, 1929.

Letters

• W.B. Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their correspondence, 1901-1937 (edited by Ursula Bridge). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953; New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy WorldCat.

Thomas Sturge Moore - Kindness- Poetry reading

See also

• List of British poets
• List of English-language playwrights

References

• Frederick L. Gwynn, Sturge Moore and the Life of Art. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1951.

Fonds

• Papers of Thomas Sturge Moore in Senate House Library, University of London

External links

Poems

• "A Duet".
• "Isaac and Rebekah" in Poetry
• T. Sturge Moore in Modern British Poetry: "The Dying Swan," "Silence Sings"
• Thomas Sturge Moore at PoemHunter (10 poems).

Books

• Works by Thomas Sturge Moore at Project Gutenberg
• T. Sturge Moore at Amazon.com

About

• "Sturge Moore and the Life of Art" by Frederick L. Gwynn (University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 1951). 159 pages, includes "A Bibliography of Sturge Moore." Open access full-text PDF file available from the University of Kansas