Burns Singer (29 August 1928 – 8 September 1964) was born James Hyman Singer in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He was a Scottish poet and translator.

Early life and education

Though he was born in New York, from the age of four, Singer was brought up in Scotland and educated in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. At the age of 15 he already had well-developed and original literary interests. Singer's father was a

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

-born second-generation Jewish immigrant from Poland, his mother was of Irish, Scottish and Norwegian background. Singer would go on to adopt her maiden name, Burns. Singer showed considerable interest in

Polish poetry Polish poetry has a centuries-old history, similar to the Polish literature. Prominent Polish poets include *Marcin Bielski (1495–1575); Polish historian, chronicler, writer and Renaissance satirical poet, first to use Polish, hence his designa ...

. His collaborative translations of Polish poets included

Ignacy Krasicki Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 173514 March 1801), from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia (in German, ''Ermland'') and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno (thus, Primate of Poland), was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet"Ignacy Krasic ...

Juliusz Słowacki Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the " Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of m ...

, Cyprian Norwid and Jerzy Peterkiewicz. Some of these appeared in the anthology ''Five Centuries of Polish Poetry, 1450–1950'' (1962), with Peterkiewicz, and a later edition.

Career and marriage

While in Scotland Singer studied English composition for two terms at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and then zoology. In 1945, at age 17, between two periods at Glasgow university, Singer went to

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

where he came into contact with W. S. Graham, a major poetic influence. Singer then had a period of several years when he travelled and worked in Europe. After the 1951 suicide of his mother he returned to Scotland where he worked for four years the marine biology lab in Aberdeen, supporting his father. He had by then spent a year in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...

and done some service in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. In 1955, he married Marie Battle, an African-American psychologist; they moved to London, where he sought freelance work writing. He enjoyed a period of success in literary journalism and as a poet. ''Still and All'' (1957) was the only collection of his poetry published during his lifetime and was the Poetry Book Society Recommendation for that year''.'' In 1960 he published with Jerzy Peterkiewicz ''Five Centuries of Polish Poetry'', a selection of translations. It is considered that his style was a "middle way" or compromise, between the

New Apocalyptics The New Apocalyptics were a poetry grouping in the United Kingdom in the 1940s, taking their name from the anthology ''The New Apocalypse'' ( 1939), which was edited by J. F. Hendry (1912–1986) and Henry Treece. There followed the further anth ...

and The Movement, or the

Scottish Renaissance The Scottish Renaissance ( gd, Ath-bheòthachadh na h-Alba; sco, Scots Renaissance) was a mainly literary movement of the early to mid-20th century that can be seen as the Scottish version of modernism. It is sometimes referred to as the Scot ...

and the Sassenach.

Death

He spent some time with Marie in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, before ultimately returning to marine biology. His early death, in Plymouth, was from a heart attack. His ashes were scattered at sea. There is a memorial to Singer in the churchyard of St Mary the Less (Little St Mary's) in

Works

*''Living Silver'' (1953) - a study of the British fishing industry *''Still and All'' (1957) (poems) *''Five Centuries of Polish Poetry'' (1962) with Jerzy Peterkiewicz *''Collected Poems'' (1970) - posthumously, edited by W. A. S. Keir *''Selected Poems'' (1977) - posthumously, edited by Anne Clusenaar *''Collected Poems'' (2001) - posthumously, edited by James Keery

References

Sources

poetry magazine article on SingerScotland library article on Singer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singer, Burns 1928 births 1964 deaths American marine biologists American people of Polish descent American people of Irish descent American people of Jewish descent United States Army soldiers 20th-century American zoologists American emigrants to Scotland