Among the 1950s poets who rejected the modernist tradition, D.J. Enright deserves a secure place. Though sometimes associated with The Movement and sharing The Movement's dislike of the esoteric and their cultivation of vernacular diction and...

[D. J. Enright's] four novels, which appeared between 1955 and 1965, while they have had considerable critical acclaim, have received less than their due attention from the reading public. All these novels are set abroad, in Alexandria, the imaginary island of Velo, or Bangkok or Japan. No doubt this fits in with the simple biographical fact that Enright has spent a considerable part of his career abroad as a Professor of English Literature in various Far Eastern universities. He undoubtedly knows wh...

In a wry little poem, "The Fairies," D. J. Enright neatly sums up his response to the foreign countries in which he has worked: …

         and the closet door swings eagerly open
      And out falls a skeleton with a frightful crash.

Enright's inaugural lecture at the University of Singapore, on which this poem presumably comments, aroused governmental hostility...

[Collected Poems] is a severely pruned collection of poems written by Enright between 1953 and now. What picture of the poet emerges from them? Academic, humanist, traveller. (p. 85) But most of all a single scene comes to mind. The poet is at his desk in some far-flung corner of south-east Asia. It is night, so the desk lamp is switched on. The poet continues to write, as insects gather under the lamp. Then the lizards come and eat the insects. The insects think the poet is punishing them by feeding them t...