Death of a poet
mainCharles Tomlinson, a profound influence on late 20th century poets, has died at the age of 88. Aside from his own verse, often deceptively simple, he made important translations of leading Italian poets.
The publisher and poet Michael Schmidt writes:
‘Octavio Paz led me, a young editor, to him when I first came to England. He in turn led me to Donald Davie, and to so much else. The debt all English readers owe him, as bridge-builder and poet, is inestimable. He said in an interview, ‘there isn’t much real poetry I don’t feel some sort of allegiance to in this swamp of newspaper prose we inhabit’.’
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