Cecil Day-Lewis, Stinsford, Dorset

Cecil Day-Lewis was educated at Sherborne School and at Wadham College, Oxford.

He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1951-1956, and was appointed Poet Laureate in 1968.

A brief biography

A great admirer of Thomas Hardy, Day-Lewis is buried close to him in St. Michael's churchyard, Stinsford, Dorset.

On Cecil Day-Lewis by Bernard O'Donoghue.

Day-Lewis would appear to be an Establishment figure. He was far from that in the 1930s, as can be seen from his poem "You that love England", which expresses his (then) Communist sympathies.


You That Love England (1933)


You that love England, who have an ear for her music,
The slow movement of clouds in benediction,
Clear arias of light thrilling over her uplands,
Over the chords of summer sustained peacefully;
Ceaseless the leaves' counterpoint in a west wind lively,
Blossom and river rippling loveliest allegro,
And the storms of wood strings brass at year's finale:
Listen. Can you not hear the entrance of a new theme?

You who go out alone, on tandem or on pillion,
Down arterial roads riding in April,
Or sad besides lakes where hill-slopes are reflected
Making fires of leaves, your high hopes fallen:
Cyclists and hikers in company, day excursionists,
Refugees from cursed towns and devastated areas;
Know you seek a new world, a saviour to establish
Long-lost kinship and restore the blood's fulfilment.

You who like peace, good sticks, happy in a small way
Watching birds or playing cricket with schoolboys,
Who pay for drinks all round, whom disaster chose not;
Yet passing derelict mills and barns roof-rent
Where despair has burnt itself out - hearts at a standstill,
Who suffer loss, aware of lowered vitality;
We can tell you a secret, offer a tonic; only
Submit to the visiting angel, the strange new healer.

You above all who have come to the far end, victims
Of a run-down machine, who can bear it no longer;
Whether in easy chairs chafing at impotence
Or against hunger, bullies and spies preserving
The nerve for action, the spark of indignation-
Need fight in the dark no more, you know your enemies.
You shall be leaders when zero hour is signalled,
Wielders of power and welders of a new world.