The Gate And Other Poems

by Cecil Day-Lewis

Genres: British Literature

68 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Cecil Day-Lewis, often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake, most of which feature the fictional detective Nigel Strangeways.
During World War II, Day-Lewis worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information for the U.K. government, and also served in the Musbury branch of the British Home Guard. He was the father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis, and documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis.

Reviews

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite poets - and a surprise - all of these poems were new to me. So very hard to describe what I like about C.D.L. I'd need more time for that.


from A Meeting

"Meeting for the first time for many years,
What do they expect to see...

Though they'll encounter, smile, shake hands,
They can only meet in the past -

Meet at the point they parted, in
The house of what they once were,
Haunted by ghosts of what they might have been
Today, had they lived on there."


The poetic monologue "The Disabused" was my favorite - what a painful reminder that we just don't know what even the people closest to us have gone through. Beautiful.

I will be reading more of C.D.L.