Stephen Spender (1909–1995)

I checked this book out from my university's library in 2002, after I found one of his poems in an anthology and wanted more, and I wasn't disappointed. Spender is one of my favorite modernist poets, hands down; and I have a bad habit of picking up this book to find one poem, and then not putting it down until I've re-read a whole section. I especially like the way in which Spender plays with traditional form and structure and rhythm, but fills it with a modern spareness of language, show more detachment of emotion, and pulls images and themes from technology and politics and social discontents; not in contrast with the traditional forms, but in a vindication of them.

At any rate, a few years ago I was at a rummage sale a few dozen miles from the university, and found the book in a $.50 box. Not "a copy of the book," but the very same book I had checked out of the school library. It even still smells of the place. And doesn't appear to ever have been properly withdrawn. So I probably should take it back to the library, but screw it, I paid them enough in exorbitant fines and not-actually-lost-by-me book fees. Plus, I was the last person to check it out, and nobody else had for seven years before, so they can deal. show less

To know that The Temple is a semi-autobiographical fiction gives weight to Spender's words. Most everything that happens to the main character, poet Paul Schoner, in The Temple is something that happened to Spender in and around 1929. He thinly disguises his relationship with other writers (most significantly W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood) as he travels to Hamburg from Oxford. It is important to remember that in the 1920s censorship was prevalent in England. As a homosexual, Spender show more needed to live his life in lies. His true identity was hidden like a secret. Germany in 1929, while more forgiving about lifestyles, was also going through its own dark period. Spender includes the growing sense of foreboding as Hitler comes to power. Though fascists and Nazis Spender paints a picture of a society that foregoes the history of friendship for the sake of power. It's violent ending is a sign of dark days ahead. show less

This is a fairly literary overview of radical student takeovers of campus buildings at Columbia University, the Sorbonne, and Britain. As such, the account interprests the radicals through the lens of literary figures (Sartre, etc.) And intriguing, obscure works like Living and Partly Living by Jiri Mucha and The unknown revolution, 1917-1921
by Voline. Not sharing a passion for anarchistic dramatic change, Spender observes aloof and disinterestedly in his accounts and interviews. He sees show more them in a sociological petri dish and dissects the "radicalization" of the movement, etc. Noticeably devoid of context: presaging conditions, aftermath, etc. This is an intersting primary source and a brisk read.

My fave quote "...western students are enclosed by their situation which is that of living in societies where there are too many commodties rather than too few and where the state is organized in the interest of producing things..." As opposed to their deprived German peers. show less

As selected here, Spender writes about a few themes impressively and intensely. There are some metaphysical-conceit poems, often based on grammar; there are love poems; and there are public poems. There are great poems in each group, but the public poems tend to be stronger; the best of all are often the poems that combine two approaches, like 'Nocturne,' which starts out eye-rolling and ends up brilliant. He's often sentimental, he's often preachy, but you know what? Maybe we need more show more sentiment, more preaching, and less documentary evidence of the dullness of poets' lives. show less