The Truly Great Stephen Spender's 'The Truly Great' reflects on spiritual courage, memory, and honour. A soaring meditation on greatness and the human spirit.

Stephen Spender was an English poet and essayist associated with the Auden Group. His collection "Collected Poems 1928–1985" confirmed his reputation for politically engaged, idealistic verse.

#StephenSpender #TheTrulyGreat #PoetryCommunity #PoemOfTheDay #PoemsRethabileLikes

"Great #poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do."

Poems: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/stephe...

✒ #StephenSpender, English poet and critic, was #BOTD 28 February 1909. #Literature

The poet #StephenSpender reading his greatest poem, 'The Truly Great' youtu.be/sXWKaB5bVyY?...

The poet #StephenSpender reading his greatest poem, 'The Truly Great' youtu.be/sXWKaB5bVyY?...

THE TRULY GREAT
by #StephenSpender

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition

Poet #StephenSpender reads his greatest poem 'The Truly Great' www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXWK...

The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

- #StephenSpender, 'The Truly Great'

THE TRULY GREAT
By #StephenSpender

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing.

Writer, Work, and World(s): Stephen Spender as Autobio(mytho)grapher The British poet Stephen Spender (1909–1995) is perhaps best known today as the chronicler of the 1930s ‘Auden Group’, a cosmopolitan public intellectual, and cultural activist. Throughout his life...

Some thoughts on how authors resort to autobio(mytho)graphy in order to deal with their complex status in the cultural imagination - available here, OA, in my article on the British poet #StephenSpender:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
@fwf-at.bsky.social @acdh-oeaw.bsky.social

"#History is the ship carrying living memories to the future."

✒ #StephenSpender, English author and poet, #DOTD 16 July 1995. #Poetry #Literature

"Great #poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do."

Poems: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/stephe...

✒ #StephenSpender, English poet and critic, was #BOTD 28 February 1909. #Literature

Stephen Spender English writer Stephen Spender was BOTD in 1909. Born in London to an affluent middle-class family, he studied at Oxford University, where he befriended W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood and so…

Foxy Oxbridge homosexual poet and novelist Stephen Spender was BOTD in 1909. #stephenspender #supergays #bornonthisday

The #poet #StephenSpender recorded reading his truly great poem ‘The Truly Great’ - whereupon he demonstrates the meaning of his words:

youtu.be/_iT3SqIWM-E?...

The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

- #StephenSpender, 'The Truly Great'

THE TRULY GREAT
by #StephenSpender

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,