Summary:
Quite often, it is said that most boys look at their fathers as their role models. In most boys' eyes, their father is a hero. They try to shape themselves just like their fathers at a very tender age. Sometimes, when they grow older, they are like the reflection of their fathers. Not only do they have the same looks but they also have the same morals and values as their fathers once did
Quite often, it is said that most boys look at their fathers as their role models. In most boys' eyes, their father is a hero. They try to shape themselves just like their fathers at a very tender age. Sometimes, when they grow older, they are like the reflection of their fathers. Not only do they have the same looks but they also have the same morals and values as their fathers once did. Sometimes, these children learn from their father and develop a very intense interest in their father's profession. More often than not, a person's family helps in shaping the person's future. A person is usually a portrait of where he comes from, what he has been through, the hardships he has seen and the experiences that he has had through his life.
Stephen Spender was born in London, England on the 28th day of February in the year 1909. His father, Edward Harold Spender was a journalist and a lecturer. Moreover, not surprisingly, he took much interest in his father's profession. He was also the nephew of the liberal journalist and biographer J.A Spender. Spender's mother was half German and half German Jewish. He also had a younger sister, Margaret who died of cancer at a
young age, on Christmas day in 1945. From the year 1928 till 1930 he was educated at Oxford. Oxford was at that time and has always been one of the most prestigious University colleges. Stephen Spender was a member of the generation of British poets who are came to prominence in the 1930s, a group- sometimes referred to as the Oxford Poets- that included W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, C.Day Lewis, and Louis MacNeice. (Eder,Doris). In his autobiograohy he mentioned that from the years 1930 till 1933 he had a homosexual relationship with Christopher Isherwood. During this time, he spent many months with Isherwood in Germany. However, it was only for a minor part of his life that he chose to be homosexual. Spender declares in his autobiography that he finds his relationships with women to have been more satisfying and lasting than those with men. In world within world, Spender is candid about being bisexual, as he is about everything else. He says he sought out men for intellectual and artistic comradeship, for relationships in which total identification was the aim, and and women for a more sensual mystical kind of union (Eder, Doris). When Spender was 27, he married Agnes (Inez) Pearn who was also and Oxford student. She was a scholar of Spanish and their marriage only lasted 3 years. He did not have any children from Agnes. He remarried in 1941. He married Natasha Litvin who was a pianist. They had two children, Mathew Francis and Elizabeth .
Evidently, Stephen Spender was not a materialistic man. He was very knowledgeable and he was very inclined not only towards literature and politics but also towards the arts. He used painting as a form of self-therapy. Alongside, he was also extremely social. " Above
all Stephen Spender was a social animal, handsome, with great charm who made hi way into the intellectual circles of his day with ease- much assisted by his own sexual ambiguity. Virgina Woolf remarked "I Like him always." "He had only to have dinner with Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath to 'collect' them instantly. (Bridgman,Joan)
On the contrary there were who thought Stephen Spender was more of a socialite. " David Leeming does little to disapprove the criticism that Spender was an academic globe-trotter interested only in money and famous people. He lists endlessly Spender's dinner guests and conference companions- turning the biography into a social diary of engagements. This is the surface of a life not its substance. But perhaps it is a fair representation of a man who was, according to Isherwood, "all shiny surfaces."
(Bridgman,Joan) Spender came across as a very well rounded person. His interest in politics and arts made him a very social able person. "Spender's concept of culture was wide and demanding. It included all the arts, and led him not only to journalism but to academic responsibility at home and abroad. He was gentle, unpompous, alight with humor and curiosity." (Binding,Paul)
Stephen Spender lived through the Second World War. "The war became a period of great activity for him. He joined the fire services(1941-1944) and married his second wife, Natasha Litvin- the pianist." ( Binding,Paul) Spender tried to divert the world's attention through his writing. "The decade of the thirties was marked by turbulent events that would shape the course of history: the world wide economic depression, the Spanish
civil war, and the beginnings of the Second World War. Seeing the established world crumbling around them, the writers of the period sought to create a new reality to replace the old, which in their minds had become obsolete." As Peter Stansky pointed out, " The 1930s were a shaping time for Spender, casting a long shadow over all that came after... It would seem that the rest of his life, even more than he may realize, has been a matter of coming to terms with the 1930s, and the conflicting claims of literature and politics as he knew them in that decade of achievement, fame, and disillusion."(Eder, Doris)
Stephen Spender was undoubtedly an overachiever. He is one of those people who is admired in society. He was well known for his intelligence and his intellect. He was a well-known writer and he was an artist. He was very knowledgeable and he knew a lot about politics too. He got many awards in his lifetime and held a few important positions. "In 1971 he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry; in 1979, he was made an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford; and, in 1982, he was knighted- a fitting crown to his own noble career as a poet and critic." (Kari,Daven)
"I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great," is amongst Stephen Spender's best works. The poem was originally untitled, and hence the first line of the poem was used as the title. Spender was highly respectful and highly appreciated the work of great artists, poets and writers. In the poem, he wrote about the lives and dedication of these great people. He admired them for their courage for their determination and for their great work. He placed these 'great people' on a pedestal and praised them. He compared
them to the great aspects of nature. "Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields, See how these names are feted by the waving grass And by the streamers of white cloud." (making literature matter) Through this poem, Spender conveyed his gratitude towards those who tried to change this world by their great work. He idolized them and expressed the fact that maybe these people were dead but to him, they were immortal. His poem was very beautifully descriptive and his words did not fail to help form images of nature in the reader's mind. "One can find evidence of strong Christian convictions as well as views that are more Eastern or Hindu in their mystical view of life." (Kari,Daven)
It was indeed everything that Spender went through that made him write the way he did. He was highly educated but at the same time, he saw a lot in his life. He lived through a world war; he saw a lot of politics around him. He also went through several relationships, some with males and others with females. His first marriage ended abruptly and then he married again. He saw his sister, Margaret, die of cancer. All these things together influenced Spender's writing. Critic Sanford Sternlicht has noted, throughout his life, Spender remained "unsure of, and ambivalent toward, philosophy, aesthetics, religion, politics, and sexuality." He admired those who were truly great and appreciated their hard work after everything he had been through. Even though he initially went by Marxist ideologies, later on in life, his views changed. He did not have any solid political views and his life made him a more liberal human being. The war, his relationships, nature, great artists, all inspired him to write. Writing was his true love until the end of his life for his last piece of work was published when he was 85 years of age. Stephen
Spender lived a great life. He was able to share his experiences and what he had leant from them through his writing with the rest of the world. Spender died in 1995, and he too was amongst those who he called 'truly great'.
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