George Barker
born Feb. 26, 1913, Loughton, Essex, Eng.
died Oct. 27, 1991, Itteringham, Norfolk
English poet mostly concerned with the
elemental forces of life. His first verses
were published in the 1930s, and he became
popular in the ’40s, about the same time as
the poet Dylan Thomas, who voiced similar
themes but whose reputation overshadowed
Barker’s.
Barker left school at 14 and worked at a
variety of jobs before his first
publications, the novel Alanna Autumnal and
Thirty Preliminary Poems, appeared in 1933.
He taught English literature in Japan, the
United States, and England from 1939 to
1974. Two of his important long poems are
Calamiterror (1937), which was inspired by
the Spanish Civil War, and The True
Confession of George Barker (1950; rev. ed.
1957). His poems include the moving “Sonnet
to My Mother.” His later poems include Villa
Stellar (1978) and Anno Domini (1983).
Barker’s Collected Poems was published in
1987
