Poetry of the Thirties

by Robin Skelton (Editor, Introduction)

Auden, Day, Lewis, Spender, MacNeice and the other key poets of the Thirties were children of the First World War, obsessed by war and by communalism, by the class-struggle and a passionate belief in poets as people whose actions are as publically important as their poems.For them, the Spanish Civil War epitomized the mood of the times, as their symbolic obsessions were transmuted into tragic reality. But from within their strongly defined unity of ideals, an astonishingly varied body of poetry emerged. Robin Skelton has arranged the poetry to make an illuminating ‘critical essay’ of the period, and in his introduction he brilliantly probes the moods and mores of an intensely troubled and creative decade.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Anthologies, 20th Century

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Robin Skelton was a writer and poet. He also wrote as Georges Zuk.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original Review August 20, 2024
Updated May 15, 2025-clarifies reading status ( complete).

3.8⭐
It's taken me a while to finish this but it was well worth the effort.
The poets featured are British and as the blurb says "the children of First World War ", who wrote during the Depression, with the shadow of fascism looming over Europe. There are only a couple of women poets represented , which is unfortunate.
The slant, as to be expected, is left leaning and pacifistic (or at least, anti-militaristic ).
Although the '30's weren't that far away, chronologically, many of the poems require work to comprehend, because of dated cultural references and metaphors but also because of the strong streak of surrealism in many of them, collected in the section ^When Logics Die' ( like all the chapter titles this is a line from a poem, contained therein).
While not easy, it's worth the effort, imho, because of the importance of the 30's in shaping the politics and social climate of the decades that followed. -30-

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1930s for poets - depression, new politics and a gathering storm..a self consciousness and awareness and the idealised romance of the Spanish civil war..the big hitters are here:

Louis Macneice, something of a depressive divorcee, displaced Irishman, class warrior, wandering in London Rain and pondering imperial shame in the British Museum reading room.

Auden, poster boy for disaffected distance, going to neutral America and waiting for 1939 to burn back in Europe.

Laurie Lee, drifting far from sleepy Gloucestershire and playing fiddle for his supper in small Spanish towns.

Dylan Thomas, new, daring thought prose that still sparkles and challenges.

Betjeman's populist easy rhymes of class (rhyme with arse), but there's few better provincial ends than a Death in Leamington.

Spender "all mystery or nothing", and C Day Lewis; communist leanings and poor sub-Eliot half images.

The smaller names' words still resonate: Randall Swingler, Norman Cameron, Philip O'Connor..but only one woman; Anne Ridler. No one seemed that interested in whatever women had to say it seems.

The 1930s - last word to Charles Madge: "We shall be differently aware, we shall see all things new, not as a craze or a surprise, but hard, naked, true.”

[Santino · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the section I need to, and I am doubtless that I will be reading it again and again in future for the essay I have to write. I wish I could read the whole thing but at this moment in time - I haven't any! This is the same problem I had for Metamorphoses.

However, I love these poems. We were focusing on the Spanish Civil War poetry, a war that came between WWI and WWII but is often overshadowed by both. It was one of the first wars where British citizens really saw in the press the horrors of war.

If the rest of the 1930s collection is as good as the Spanish Civil War poems, then this book easily deserved the rating I have awarded it.

[Kelsie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I just need to accept that poetry ain't my thing.
God knows I've tried and tried again to get into it but every book of poetry I come across just makes me feel dumb because I don't understand what the hell they are talking about, a whole lot of nonsensical word vomit, well to me, obviously it's not nonsensical to others.
There's quite a lot of poems in this here book, I'm bad at judging how much but I'd assume over 100 & I liked a grand total of 3. The first one was Lament For A Lost Life by H. B. Mallalieu, the next was Offering by Kenneth Allott and finally Prognosis by Louis MacNeice. I understood and enjoyed them.
I guess what I would like from poems is just a teeny tiny explanation under the title of the poem as to what said poem is about, maybe I'd understand and appreciate them more.
You all know I'll probably buy another book of poetry in hopes that this one will be the one that I'm like 'I LOVE IT!' but, alas, it wasn't this one.
You win this round again, poems.
Until next time...
x

[Pewterbreath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never before have I read a book that so represented its times. The poetry in here is wonderful, and has a distinctive flavor--stuff like this simply isn't written anymore--styles change. . .I don't know. It's also good to see how poets fit into their times (if this makes any sense). Sometimes I think if we published a book of representative poetry from each year we would know a great deal more about history than what we do..

[Christian Dabnor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a big poetry person, but I enjoyed much of what was in here.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the greats are here with many of their most famous poems but for me it is Louis Macneice that I find most engaging (and most underrated)

[Harry Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the Spanish civil war section

[James Everington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed and appreciated some of the poems in this book, but I was left with a persistent sense that this generation of poets wasn't as strong as the one that preceded it - no talent on the scale of TS Eliot for example.

It didn't help that the poems I thought the best in this volume were by Dylan Thomas, and I already knew those.

Also less notes & period detail than other Penguin poetry books I have.

[Tim Rideout · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intelligent and thoughtful selection by Robin Skelton. So many of the poems were written as a response to crises (the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Fascism, the coming of further global war).

Where is the equivalent poetry of 2016? We need poetic truth more now than ever.

[Paul Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love so many of the poems and poets in this collection that I expected to know it all but this collection is full of obscurities (at least to me) and delights. I especially enjoyed HB Mallalieu’s Lament for a Lost Life. The experience of reading this was enhanced by my buying it from Word on the Water, the London book barge.

[Christopher Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real sense of the progressive politics of the time and how much I've been underestimating Betjeman.

[Jessie B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection

[Mark Vallianatos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this collection from the cubist cover to the light penguin blue to some nifty, moving, if sometimes overdramatic poems like Rex Warner's hymn and sonnet, willian empson's just a smack at Auden and missing dates, Gavin ewart's Audenesque for an initiation, Michael roberts' the secret springs, wh auden's and I remember Spain

[Hannah Mccarney · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of poetry from acclaimed 1930's poets.