Greacen, Robert

(1920- )

   An Irish poet, born in Derry, he studied at the Methodist College, Belfast, and Trinity College, Dublin. He had a career in journalism and literary criticism in London, worked for the United Nations Association and was a lecturer in adult education. He has published several volumes of criticism and won bursaries from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 1971 and 1984. He is a member of Aosdána and lives in Dublin. In 1995, his Collected Poems won the Irish Times Literature Prize for Poetry. His autobiography, Even Without Irene, was published in 1969 and revised in 1995 with another volume, The Sash My Father Wore (1997). He published studies on C.P. Snow (1952) and on Noël Coward (1953). Some of his other publications: The Bird, 1941. A Garland for Captain Fox, 1975. A Bright Mask, 1985. Carnival at the River, 1990. Ecstasy, 1999. Collected Poems, 1944-1994, 1995. Lunch at the Ivy, 2002.

   Some of his poems: "A Summer Day," "Father and Son," "Michael Walked in the Wood," "Old in Overijssel."

   Sources: Irish Contemporary Poets (http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/irish.htm). Poets From The North of Ireland. Frank Ormsby, ed. The Blackstaff Press, 1990. Biography of Robert Greacen (http://www.sarahferris.co.uk/pages/robertgreacen.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). Turning Tides: Modern Dutch and Flemish Verse in English Versions by Irish Poets. Peter van de Kamp, ed. Story Line Press, 1994.