Ruth Pitter - Career, Style and Influences

Poet, born in Ilford, E Greater London, UK. Encouraged by Hilaire Belloc, her work drew mainly upon the beauty of natural things. In 1955 she was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, having already won the Hawthornden Prize in 1936. Her volumes include First and Second Poems (1927), A Mad Lady's Garland (1934), and End of Drought (1975).

She was the first woman ever to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (in 1955), and was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1979 to honour her many contributions to English literature.

In 1974 she was named a Companion of Literature, the highest honor given by the Royal Society of Literature.

Career

Pitter began writing poetry early in life under the influence of her parents (both educators).

She received the Hawthornden Prize in 1937 for A Trophy of Arms, published the previous year.

Style and Influences

Pitter was a traditionalist poet--she avoided most of the experimentations of modern verse and preferred the meter and rhyme schemes of the 19th century. Because of this, Pitter was too frequently overlooked by the major critics of her day, and has only in recent years been seen as an important British poet of the 20th century: her reputation has been helped in large part by Philip Larkin's respect for her poetry (he included four of her poems in the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse).

She met and corresponded with Lewis for many years, and is thought by many Lewis scholars to have had an effect on his writing in the 1940s and 1950s.