Ruth Pitter

Ruth Pitter CBE (born November 7, 1897 in Ilford , Essex , † February 29, 1992 in Long Crendon , Buckinghamshire ) was a British poet . She was the first woman to be awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955 . In 1974 she was named Companion of Literature , the highest honor given by the Royal Society of Literature . Since 1979 she has been "Commander of the British Empire" for her numerous contributions to English literature .

Life

Under the influence of her parents, a couple of teachers, Pitter began to poetry at an early age. The first experience with literature was the regular recitation of memorized poems at family gatherings on Sundays. Another experience was the country life, which was to be decisive for all of her work and meant more to her than human relationships.

She published her first poems while she was still in school. A first selection appeared in 1920. With A Mad Lady's Garland (1934), whose foreword was written by Hilaire Belloc , she had her real breakthrough. Her following works achieved both literary criticism and success in the book market. In 1937 she received the Hawthornden Prize for A Trophy of Arms . In order to make a living, she worked with her partner Kathleen O'Hara in the cabinetmaker's shop they both owned , after a bomb attack on the workshop in an ammunition factory , before they bought a country house, where Pitter pursued her two passions, writing and gardening .

At this time, her public recognition as a poet was consolidated. In 1954 she won the William E. Heinemann Award for Ermine . As one of the first writers she joined the BBC in radio and television on u. a. in The Brains Trust , one of the first talk shows on British television. Pitter also read some of her works as sound recordings for the BBC archives.

Ruth Pitter was a traditional poet. She avoided experimental spellings and instead used the meter measures and rhyme schemes of the 19th century. As a result, her work was often overlooked by the leading literary critics of her time. It was only in her later years that Pitter was considered an important representative of British poetry. The recognition of fellow poet Philip Larkin gave her a bigger response when he included four of her poems in the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse .

Her writer friends included u. a. Walter de la Mare , Hugh MacDiarmid , Siegfried Louvain Sassoon and Kathleen Raine , William Butler Yeats , Robin Skelton , David Cecil and Thom Gunn . She had a particularly close friendship with Clive Staples Lewis , who held her poetry in high esteem, met her often and had a long correspondence with her. Pitter influenced Lewis' work in the 1940s and 1950s. He persuaded her to convert to the Church of England .

Works (selection)

• First poems . London 1920
• First & Second Poems 1912-1925 . London 1927
• A Mad Lady's Garland . London 1934
• A Trophy of Arms . London 1936
• The Spirit Watches . London 1939
• The rude potato . London 1941
• The Bridge . London 1945
• On cats . London 1947
• The Ermine . London 1953
• Still by choice . London 1966
• Poems, 1926-1966 . London 1968
• End of drought . London 1975. ISBN 0214200868
• A heaven to find . London 1987. ISBN 0905289692
• Collected poems . Petersfield 1990. ISBN 1870612116

literature

• Arthur Russell (Ed.): Ruth Pitter: homage to a poet. With an introduction by David Cecil . London 1969, ISBN 0853910324