Wilfrid Wilson Gibson(2 October 1878 – 26 May 1962) was a BritishGeorgian poet,who was associated withWorld War Ibut continued publishing poetry into the 1940s and 1950s.
Early work
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Gibson was born inHexham,Northumberland.His parents were Elizabeth Judith Frances (born Walton) and John Pattison Gibson. Her father was a chemist who was interested in photography and antiquarianism.[1]His elder sisterElizabeth,who became his teacher and mentor, also became a published poet.[2]He left the north for London in 1914 after his mother died. He had been publishing poems in magazines since 1895, and his first collections in book form were published byElkin Mathewsin 1902. His collections of verse plays and dramatic poemsThe StonefoldsandOn The Thresholdwere published by the Samurai Press (ofCranleigh) in 1907, followed next year by the book of poems,The Web of Life.[3]
Despite his residence in London, and later inGloucestershire,many of Gibson's poems both then and later, have Northumberland settings:Hexham's Market Cross;Hareshaw;andThe Kielder Stone.Others deal with poverty and passion amid wild Northumbrian landscapes. Still others are devoted to fishermen, industrial workers and miners, often alluding to local ballads and the rich folk-song heritage of theNorth East.
In London, he met bothEdward MarshandRupert Brooke,becoming a close friend and later Brooke'sliterary executor(withLascelles AbercrombieandWalter de la Mare).[4]This was at the period when the firstGeorgian Poetryanthology was being hatched. Gibson was one of the insiders.[5]
During the early part of his writing life, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson wrote poems that featured the "macabre". One such poem is "Flannan Isle",based ona real-life mystery.
Gibson was one of the founders of theDymock poets,a group of writers who lived in and around the village ofDymock,on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border, in the years immediately before the outbreak of theFirst World War.[6]
Gibson also published plays, as well as several prose works. For instance, he wrote and argued beautifully about the merit of verse at the time of World War II.[7]He wrote a piece of criticism onItalian Nationalism and English Lettersby Harry W. Rudman regarding the contributions made by Italian exiles in England to English literature, which were in the form of poetry by and large.[8]He also wrote criticism onThe Burning Oracle: Studies in the Poetry of Actionby G. Wilson Knight, wherein he commends the fact that Knight sees the creative energy of living writers not only in the creation of artworks, but also in the creation of life itself.[9]
Death and reputation
editGibson died on 26 May 1962, inVirginia Water,Surrey.[10]
His reputation was eclipsed somewhat by theEzra Pound-T. S. Eliotschool ofModernist poetry,[11][12]though his work remained popular.
Further reading
edit- Dominic Hibberd,Wilfrid Gibson and Harold Monro, the Pioneers(Cecil Woolf, 2006)
Notes
edit- ^Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004)."The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33392.Retrieved26 August2023.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^Greenway, Judy (13 July 2023),"Gibson [married name Cheyne], Elizabeth [known as Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne] (1869–1931), poet and social activist",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press,doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.95466,ISBN978-0-19-861412-8,retrieved24 August2023
- ^' "Young men who knew that the age demanded something new in poetry were impressed by the austerity of his little 'working class' plays". (Joy Grant,Harold Monro & the Poetry Bookshop(1966), p. 19. Whistler p. 281 remarks on thecolloquial, homespun realismthat at first was admired in Gibson.
- ^Gibson met de la Mare, and quite a number of other poets, through Marsh (Theresa Whistler,Imagination of the Heart: The Life of Walter de la Mare(1993), p. 205 and 208) in 1912.It was with de la Mare that Gibson was to make the closest friendship. Gentle and unlucky, he himself best fitted Brooke's description of those good-hearted and simple and nice poets he wanted to protect.
- ^Paul Delany,The Neo-Pagans(1987), p. 199, writes of a business lunch 19 September 1912 at Marsh's flat, with Gibson,John Drinkwater,Harold MonroandArundel del Re.
- ^Famous People of Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Royal Forest of Dean at royalforestofdean.info
- ^Gibson, Wilfrid (1 October 1940)."Only Time Will Tell: An Indeterminate Meditation".English: Journal of the English Association.3(15): 109–111.doi:10.1093/english/3.15.109.ISSN0013-8215.
- ^Gibson, Wilfrid (1 October 1940)."Italian Nationalism and English Letters".English: Journal of the English Association.3(15): 142–a–142.doi:10.1093/english/3.15.142-a.ISSN0013-8215.
- ^Gibson, Wilfred (1 March 1940)."The Burning Oracle: Studies in the Poetry of Action".English: Journal of the English Association.3(13): 35–36.doi:10.1093/english/3.13.35.ISSN0013-8215.
- ^Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.Merriam-Webster. 1995.ISBN9780877790426.
- ^TheLiterary Encyclopediastates that his reputation plummeted. Whistler p. 282 hasGibson's was the saddest fate of all the Georgians. Once acclaimed as the leader of an exciting new movement, when that movement came into derision the critics found in him the epitome of its vices.
- ^Arthur Clutton-Brock(TLS, 24 February 1927,Five Modern Poets) considers Gibson alongside Eliot,AE,Herbert ReadandJames Stephens(pp 113-114). It is concluded there that "Mr Gibson's poetry... has its own specific qualities and is, in its essentials unique". In 1942 Philip Tomlinson refers to Gibson as "this distinguished poet" (TLS 31 January 1942 p. 57).
External links
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- Page atSpartacus
- Elizabeth Whitcomb Houghton Collection,containing letters by Gibson
- Gloucestershire Poets, Writers and Artists CollectionUniversity of Gloucestershire Archives and Special Collections
- Works by Wilfrid Wilson GibsonatProject Gutenberg
- Works by Wilfrid Wilson GibsonatFaded Page(Canada)
- Works by or about Wilfrid Wilson Gibsonat theInternet Archive
- Works by Wilfrid Wilson GibsonatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
- Archival material atLeeds University Library