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Alfred Noyes [1880-1958] ENG
Ranked #116 in the top 380 poets
Votes 79%: 672 up, 175 down

Short-story writer and playwright, best known for his ballads. Patriotic morale-boosting short stories and exhortatory odes and lyrics recalling England's military past and asserting the morality of her cause.

Noyes is often portrayed by hostile critics as a militarist and jingoist. Actually, he was a pacifist who hated war and lectured against it, but felt that, when threatened by an aggressive and unreasoning enemy, a nation could not but fight.

"Anti-militarist", "passionate and inspiring", but, in its "unsparing realism", lacking in "the large vision, which sees the ultimate truth rather than the immediate details". Failed to address the "vital questions" raised, for example, by William James' observation that for modern man, "War is the strong life; it is life in extremis", or by John Fletcher's invocation in The Two Noble Kinsmen of war as the "great corrector" that heals and cures "sick" times.

Alfred Noyes was the son of Alfred and Amelia Adams Noyes.  He was born on the 16th of September in the year 1880 in the town of Wolverhamton, England. His father was a teacher and taught Latin and Greek and  in Aberystwyth, Wales. In 1898, Alfred attended Exeter College in Oxford. Though he failed to earn a degree, the young poet published his first collection of poetry, The Loom of Years, in 1902.Between 1903 and 1908, Noyes published five volumes of poetry including The Forest of Wild Thyme (1905) and The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems (1907). His books were widely reviewed and were published both in Britain and the United States. Among his best-known poems from this time are The Highwayman and Drake. Drake, which appeared serially in Blackwood`s Magazine, was a two-hundred page epic about life at sea.

Noyes married Garnett Daniels in 1907, and they had three children. His increasing popularity allowed the family to live off royalty checks. In 1914, Noyes accepted a teaching position at Princeton University, where he taught English Literature until 1923. He was a noted critic of modernist writers, particularly James Joyce. Likewise, his work at this time was criticized by some for its refusal to embrace the modernist movement.

In 1922 he began an epic called The Torch Bearers, which was published in three volumes (Watchers of the Sky, 1922; The Book of Earth, 1925; and The Last Voyage, 1930). The book was inspired by his visit to a telescope located at Mount Wilson, California and attempted to reconcile his views of science with religion. 

After the death of his wife, Garnett in 1926, Noyes converted to Roman Catholicism and married his second wife, Mary Angela Mayne Weld-Blundell. In 1929, the family moved to Lisle Combe, St Lawrence, Isle of Wight where Noyes continued to write essays and poems, culminating in the collection, Orchard`s Bay (1939). Alfred Noyes died on June 25, 1958, and was buried on the Isle of Wight.

Bibliography source: poets.org and historique.net

Children, Gothic, Playwright, Romanticism



WorkLangRating
The Highwayman
eng
111
Daddy Fell into the Pond
eng
76
The Moon is Up
eng
31
The Ballad of Dick Turpin
eng
13
The Loom of Years
eng
9
A Song of Sherwood
eng
8
A Prayer in Time of War
eng
5
To The R. A. F.
eng
5
The Old Grey Squirrel
eng
4
"When Spring Comes Back To England"
eng
3
The Elfin Artist
eng
3
"In The Cool Of The Evening"
eng
2
Song
eng
2
Unity
eng
2
Earth-Bound
eng
1
Fishers Of Men
eng
1
On The Western Front
eng
1
The Barrel-Organ
eng
1
The Escape of the Old Grey Squirrel
eng
1
The Lost Battle
eng
1
The Trumpet Call
eng
1
A New Madrigal To An Old Melody
eng
0
A Post-Impression
eng
0
A Prayer
eng
0
A Ride For The Queen
eng
0
A Roundhead`s Rallying Song
eng
0
A Song Of England
eng
0
A Song Of Two Burdens
eng
0
A-Song-of-the-Trawlers
eng
0
Alzuna
eng
0
An Open Boat
eng
0
Apes And Ivory
eng
0
Art
eng
0
Art, The Herald
eng
0
At Dawn
eng
0
Beethoven In Central Park
eng
0
Butterflies
eng
0
Cap`n Storm-Along
eng
0
Compensations
eng
0
Cotton-Wool
eng
0
Dead Man`s Morrice
eng
0
Dedication : To The Memory Of Cecil Spring-Rice
eng
0
Drake
eng
0
Enceladus
eng
0
Epilogue
eng
0
Fashions
eng
0
Five Critcisms
eng
0
Haunted In Old Japan
eng
0
Immortal Sails
eng
0
Lines For A Sun-Dial
eng
0
Memories Of The Pacific Coast
eng
0
Michael Oaktree
eng
0
Moving Through The Dew
eng
0
Name Sakes
eng
0
Niobe
eng
0
Nippon
eng
0
Old Japan
eng
0
On A Mountain Top
eng
0
Peace
eng
0
Peace In A Palace
eng
0
Princeton, May, 1917
eng
0
Republic And Motherland
eng
0
Resurrection
eng
0
Riddles Of Merlin
eng
0
Shadow-of-a-Leaf
eng
0
Shadows on the Down
eng
0
Shakespeare`s Kingdom
eng
0
Slave And Emperor
eng
0
Sunlight And Sea
eng
0
The Avenue Of The Allies
eng
0
The Bell
eng
0
The Big Black Trawler
eng
0
The Chimney-Sweeps Of Cheltenham
eng
0
The Companions
eng
0
The Double Fortress
eng
0
The Ghost Of The New World
eng
0
The Hills Of Youth
eng
0
The Humming Birds
eng
0
The Inn of Apollo
eng
0
The Island Hawk
eng
0
The Little Roads
eng
0
The Man Who Discovered The Use Of A Chair
eng
0
The Matin-song of Friar Tuck
eng
0
The New Duckling
eng
0
The Night Of The Lion
eng
0
The Old Fool In The Wood
eng
0
The Old Gentleman With The Amber Snuff-Box
eng
0
The Old Meeting House
eng
0
The Open Door
eng
0
The People`s Fleet
eng
0
The Phantom Fleet
eng
0
The Realms Of Gold
eng
0
The Reward Of Song
eng
0
The Road Through Chaos
eng
0
The Searchlights
eng
0
The Sussex Sailor
eng
0
The Symphony
eng
0
The Union
eng
0
The Vindictive
eng
0
The war Widow
eng
0
The Young Friar
eng
0
To A Successful Man
eng
0
Touchstone On A Bus
eng
0
Veterans
eng
0
Victory
eng
0
What Grandfather Said
eng
0
Wireless.
eng
0

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