In Earthlight by Jonathan Griffin

In Earthlight by Jonathan Griffin

Poetry. Poets as different from each other as Ted Hughes, George Oppen and Jeff Nuttall have expressed admiration for Jonathan Griffin's work. According to the American poet and critic Eliot Weinberger, Griffin is perhaps the finest unknown poet in our language. His is a poetry of planetary consciousness--the poet's response both ecstasy and rage. The intense lyrics in celebration of natural beauty - some of the loveliest in the language - are almost eclipsed by the bleak and apocalyptic meditations. Griffin is one of the few poets writing today who is confronting, in the poem, this earth of pesticides, deforestation, chemical waste.

Although Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) is now recognized as one of the founders of modern art, he found it difficult to make a living, and in 1891 sailed for Polynesia to escape civilization. He stayed there, on and off, until his death in the Marquesas Islands 12 years later. Jonathan Griffin (1906-1990) was a poet, translator, diplomat, and director of BBC European Intelligence during World War II. He translated Pessoa, Char, Kleist, Montherlant, and many others. Jean Louize is an art historian.