Louis MacNeice, Autumn Journal

Patrick Early (British Council)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

First circulation or publication May 1939

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

In a few months of autumn 1938, the Anglo-Irish poet, Louis Mac Neice composed

Autumn Journal,

one of his most memorable works. “The poem”, he wrote to T. S. Eliot, his publisher, “is based on first-hand experience, written in 24 sections of about 80 lines in length, designed to give the poem a dramatic quality, and to show off different facets of my personality.”

Having read the manuscript, T. S. Eliot wrote:

I have read Autumn Journal and think it is very good indeed. At times, I was much moved and what is still more unusual in the case of a single long poem, I found that I read it through without my interest flagging at any point. That is partly due to the dexterity with which you vary the versification. And, I think, to the fact

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2664 words

Citation: Early, Patrick. "Autumn Journal". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 March 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6417, accessed 24 April 2024.]

Save this article