Rodgers, William Robert

(1909-1969)

   Irish poet, prose essayist, book reviewer, radio broadcaster, script writer, lecturer and teacher, known as W.R., he was born in Belfast and ordained as a Presbyterian minister at Loughgall, County Armagh, in 1935. He resigned from the ministry in 1946 and joined the BBC in London, for whom he wrote radio programs about Ireland and the Irish poets. From 1966 to 1968, he was writer in residence at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, then moved to a similar position at California State Polytechnic College. He died in Los Angeles in 1969 and was buried at the site of his first ministry in Ireland. His Collected Poems appeared in 1971. Some of his poems: "Apollo and Daphne," "Beagles," "Resurrection: An Easter Sequence," "Scapegoat," "Stormy Night," "The Airman," "The Fountains," "The Train," "White Christmas."

   Sources: Awake! And Other Wartime Poems. Harcourt Brace, 1942 (these poems, written between 1938 and 1940, were originally sent to press in London in 1940, and the first printing was entirely destroyed by German bombs.) (Tomfolio.com: Poetry: Poets QZ). Contemporary Irish Poetry: An Anthology. Anthony Bradley, ed. University of California Press. New and rev. ed., 1988. Erotic Poetry: The Lyrics, Ballads, Idyls, and Epics of Love-Classical to Contemporary. William Cole, ed. Random House, 1963. Little Treasury of Modern Poetry: English and American. 3d ed. Oscar Williams, ed. Scribner's, 1970. Poets from the North of Ireland. Frank Ormsby, ed. The Blackstaff Press, 1990. Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (http://www.proni.gov.uk/research/academic/strength.htm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The War Poets: An Anthology of the War Poetry of the 20th Century. Oscar Williams, ed. John Day, 1945. William Robert Rodgers: The Susquehanna Quarterly. (http://susquehannaquarterly.org/rodgers.htm).