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Burns Singer
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'''Burns Singer''' (
1928-
1964), born '''James Hyman Singer''' in
New York and an
USA American citizen all his life, was a poet usually identified as Scottish. He was brought up in Scotland from a young age, and educated in
Glasgow. He had
Polish people Polish,
Jewish and
Irish ethnicity Irish ancestry, and showed considerable interest in
Polish poetry. His collaborative translations of Polish poets included
Ignacy Krasicki,
Juliusz Slowacki,
Cyprian Norwid and
Jerzy Peterkiewicz. Some of these appeared in the
anthology ''Five Centuries of Polish Poetry, 1450–1950'' (1962), with Peterkiewicz, and a later edition.
In 1945 he came south to London, taking some teaching work, and then went to
Cornwall where he came into contact with
W. S. Graham, a major poetic influence. He studied at Glasgow University, beginning degree courses in Zoology and English; but abandoned those after the 1951 suicide of his mother. He had by then spent a year in
Marburg, and done some service in the
U. S. Army.
He then worked for four years in
marine biology, supporting his father. In 1955 he married
Marie Battle, an African-American psychologist; they moved to London, where he sought freelance work writing. He enjoyed a period of success in literary journalism, and as a poet. It is considered that his style was a 'middle way' or compromise: between the
New Apocalyptics and
the Movement, or the
Scottish Renaissance and the Sassenach. However that may be, he shortly succeeded in pleasing no one and giving offence to many, especially in his cups.
He spent some time with Marie in
Cambridge, before ultimately returning to marine biology. His early death, in
Plymouth, was from natural causes.
Works
*''Living Silver'' (1953) non-fiction
*''Still and All'' (1957) (poems)
*''Five Centuries of Polish Poetry'' (1962) with Jerzy Peterkiewicz
*''Collected Poems'' (1970) edited by W. A. S. Keir
*''Selected Poems'' (1977) edited by Anne Clusenaar
*''Collected Poems'' (2001) edited by James Keery
Category:British poets Singer, Burns
Category:1928 births Singer, Burns
Category:1964 deaths Singer, Burns
