Abercrombie, Lascelles

(1881-1938)

   English poet, journalist and dramatist, associated with Georgian poetry. (The Georgians were a group of poets who gained a large popular readership during the early years of George V's reign, 1910-1936. Their poetry tried to maintain the romantic tradition of an earlier age in order to combat the values of Modernism.) Abercrombie had a distinguished academic career in literature at the universities of Liverpool, Leeds and Oxford between 1919 and 1938. He published many poems and collections of poems between 1908 and 1931. Interludes and Poems appeared in 1908, the same year that he began to write for the Liverpool Courier. His work is included in a five volumes series titled Georgian Poetry (1912-1922) edited by Sir Edward Howard Marsh. He and several others formed the Georgian journal New Numbers, a vehicle where much of his best work appeared, with that of Rupert Brooke, John Drinkwater and Wilfrid Gibson. His "Witchcraft: New Style," published in Georgian Poetry 1918-1919, beautifully creates an atmosphere of a public house. Some of his poems: "The Box," "Emblems of Love," "From Vashti," "Hymn to Love," "The Sale of Saint Thomas."

   Sources: Biography of Lascelles Abercrombie (http://www.paralumun.com/bioabercrombie.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). 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 Georgian Poets: Abercrombie, Brooke, Drinkwater, Lascelles, Thomas (Writers and Their Works). Rennie Parker. Northcote House Educational Publishers, Tavistock, England, 1998. The Literary Encyclopedia (www.LitEncyc.com). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.