Louis MacNeice

1907-1963. Poet and a member of the McSpaunday group.

Childhood & Education

Frederick Louis MacNeice was born in Belfast on September 12 1907 although his family was from the western part of Ireland. He recalled especially his youth as a very depressing and isolated time which was caused by the early death of his mentally ill mother. He never recovered from the loss and pain he felt which followed him his whole life. After his mother died when he was only six years old, his father sent him from Carrickfergus, a village near Belfast, where he had spent his childhood and had lived privileged, to Malborough College in Wiltshire and some years later to Oxford where he studied.

Work

At Oxford, he met W.H. Auden which became his life-long friend and companion. He also came in contact and friends with Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. Inspired by his friends and their work, he wrote plays and poetry. He also worked as a lecturer in classics and a translator. After a short stay in the United States because of the Second World War and the unanswered love to American writer Eleanor Clark, MacNeice started to work for the BBC in 1941.

As mentioned before, MacNeice wrote poems when he was still at Oxford. Poems like "Blind Fireworks", which gives an inside to his childhood, Poems, Letter from Iceland, The Earth Compels and Autumn Journal which were all written and published between 1929 and 1939 are just some examples. His Poems are said to have paved the way for him while Autumn Journal is the most recognized and sophisticated poem.

Until his death September 3 1963, which was caused by pneumonia, MacNeice continued to write poems which at a later stage of his life focused on the meaning of life, love and death. Especially his economic form, inventive language and lively imagery are adored by his readership.

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Sorces

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=1559

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/getwritingni/wh_macneice.shtml