Lewis, Alun

(1915-1944)

   The son of a schoolteacher, he was born in a South Wales mining village. He had a grammar school education and graduated with a first-class degree in history from University College of Wales at Aberystwyth in 1935 and an M.A. from Manchester University in 1936, then trained as a teacher at Aberystwyth. Although a pacifist, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1940 and saw service in India and in Burma, where he died, it is said, killed by his own revolver. His two books of short stories are The Last Inspection (1942) and Letters from India (1946). "Some critics see him as the last of the great Romantic poets, a twentieth century Keats" (Alun Lewis Biography, http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk). His poetry publications: Raiders' Dawn and Other Poems, 1942. Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets, 1945. Selected Poetry and Prose, 1966. Some of his poems: "A Troopship in the Tropics," "After Dunkirk," "Burma Casualty," "On the Welsh Mountains," "The Assault Convoy," "The Captivity," "The Mountain over Aberdare," "The Soldier," "Threnody for a Starry Night," "War Wedding," "Westminster Abbey."

   Sources: Collected Poems of Alun Lewis. Cary Archard, ed. Poetry Wales Press, 1994. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). 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 Faber Book of War Poetry. Kenneth Baker, ed. Faber and Faber, 1996. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. War Poets Association: The Life of Alun Lewis (http://www.warpoets.org/conflicts/ww2/lewis/).