Clive Wilmer (born 10 February 1945) is a British poet, who has published eight volumes of poetry. He is also a critic, literary journalist, broadcaster and lecturer.

Biography

Wilmer was born in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, and attended

Emanuel School Emanuel School is an independent, co-educational day school in Battersea, south-west London. The school was founded in 1594 by Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre and Queen Elizabeth I and occupies a 12-acre (4.9 ha) site close to Clapham Junction ra ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

. He is the brother of writer and photographer

Val Wilmer Valerie Sybil Wilmer (born 7 December 1941) is a British photographer and writer specialising in jazz, gospel, blues, and British African-Caribbean music and culture. Her notable books include ''Jazz People'' (1970) and ''As Serious As Your Lif ...

. He has a daughter, a son and two grandsons. He shares his life with the historian of science

Patricia Fara Patricia Fara is a historian of science at the University of Cambridge. She is a graduate of the University of Oxford and did her PhD at the University of London. She is a former Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, Darwin College and is an Emer ...

. Wilmer's poetry is usually formal but occasionally experimental. He sees religion as fundamental to what he writes, yet he does not associate himself with a parochial view of spiritual matters. His work is also marked by an enthusiasm for architecture and visual culture. He is currently resident in Cambridge, where he is Emeritus Fellow of

Sidney Sussex College Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

. He is also an Honorary Fellow of

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin in ...

, an Anniversary Fellow of

Whitelands College Whitelands College is the oldest of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton. History Whitelands College is one of the oldest higher education institutions in England (predating every university except Oxford, Cambridge, Lo ...

University of Roehampton The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

, and an Honorary Patron of the

William Morris Gallery The William Morris Gallery is a museum devoted to the life and works of William Morris, an English Arts and Crafts designer and early socialist. It is located in Walthamstow at Water House, a substantial Grade II* listed Georgian home. The ext ...

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...

. He has had various teaching jobs in Italy – in Florence, Verona, Padua and Venice. In 2015 he was a Visiting Professor at

Ca' Foscari University of Venice Ca' Foscari University of Venice ( it, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, simply Università Ca' Foscari) is a public university in Venice, Italy. Since its foundation in 1868, it has been housed in the Venetian Gothic palace of Ca' Foscari, from w ...

. He is interested in the art of verse translation and has translated himself from several languages, In particular, he has translated in collaboration with the Hungarian poet

George Gömöri George Gomori may refer to: * György Gömöri (1904–1957), Hungarian-American physician and histochemist * George Gomori (born 1934), Hungarian-born poet, writer and academic {{hndis, Gomori, George ...

. Together they have translated selections from

Miklós Radnóti Miklós Radnóti (born Miklós Glatter; 5 May 1909 – November 1944) was a Hungarian poet and teacher. He was murdered in the Holocaust. Biography Miklós Glatter was the son of a vendor of the textile business company Brück & Grosz in Bu ...

György Petri György Petri (22 December 1943 – 16 July 2000) was a Hungarian poet. Childhood and youth He was born in 1943 to a multi-ethnic family in Budapest. After his father's death he was raised by his mother, grandparents and aunts. According to his ...

János Pilinszky János Pilinszky (27 November 1921 in Budapest – 27 May 1981 in Budapest) was one of the greatest Hungarian poets of the 20th century. Well known within the Hungarian borders for his vast influence on postwar Hungarian poetry, Pilins ...

and Gömöri himself, as well as individual pieces by several others. Wilmer's own poems have been translated into Hungarian, Italian and Spanish. Wilmer was the prime mover of the

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

centenary exhibition ''Pound's Artists: Ezra Pound and the Visual Arts in London, Paris and Italy'', held at

Kettle's Yard Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities. Kettle's Yard galleries, shop and caf ...

and the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in 1985. From 1986 to 1990, Wilmer was one of the four founding editors of the magazine ''Numbers''. He is an enthusiastic advocate for the work of the Victorian critic, artist, philanthropist and social reformer

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

.John Ruskin, ''Unto this Last and Other Writings'', edited with introduction, commentary and notes by Clive Wilmer (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985). Since 2004, he has been a Companion and Director of the

Guild of St George The Guild of St George is a charitable Education Trust, based in England but with a worldwide membership, which tries to uphold the values and put into practice the ideas of its founder, John Ruskin (1819–1900). History Ruskin, a Victorian ...

, the charity founded by Ruskin. He became Master of the Guild in 2009. He has also written extensively on

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

. Among contemporary writers, Wilmer has written on the work of the poets

Thom Gunn Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement, and his later poetry in America, even after moving towards a looser, ...

and

Donald Davie Donald Alfred Davie, FBA (17 July 1922 – 18 September 1995) was an English Movement poet, and literary critic. His poems in general are philosophical and abstract, but often evoke various landscapes. Biography Davie was born in Barnsley, ...

and has edited volumes of their essays. His annotated edition of Gunn's ''Selected Poems'' was published by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

in 2017.

Works

* ''The Dwelling-Place'' (1977) * (with

) Miklós Radnóti, ''Forced March: Selected Poems'' (1979) * ''Devotions'' (1982) * (as editor) Thom Gunn, ''The Occasions of Poetry: Essays in Criticism and Autobiography'' (1982) * (as editor) John Ruskin, ''Unto this Last, and Other Writings'' (1985) * (as editor) Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ''Selected Poems and Translations'' (1991) * (with George Gömöri) György Petri, ''Night Song of the Personal Shadow: Selected Poems'' (1991) * ''Of Earthly Paradise'' (1992) * (as editor) William Morris, ''News from Nowhere and Other Writings'' (1993) * ''Poets Talking: The 'Poet of the Month' Interviews from BBC Radio 3'' (1994) * ''Selected Poems'' (1995) * (as editor with Charles Moseley) ''Cambridge Observed: An Anthology'' (1998) * (as editor) Donald Davie, ''With the Grain: Essays on Thomas Hardy and Modern British Poetry'' (1998) * (with George Gömöri) György Petri, ''Eternal Monday: New and Selected Poems'' (1999) * ''The Falls'' (2000) * (as editor) Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ''Selected Poems and Translations'' (2002) * (with George Gömöri) Miklós Radnóti, ''Forced March: Selected Poems'', revised & extended edition, (2003) * (as editor) Donald Davie, ''Modernist Essays: Yeats, Pound, Eliot'' (2004) * ''Stigmata'' (2005). Poetry pamphlet * ''The Mystery of Things'' (2006) * (with George Gömöri) János Pilinszky, ''Passio: Fourteen Poems'' (2011) * ''New & Collected Poems'' (2012) * ''A New World on which the World should Travel: John Ruskin, "The Nature of Gothic" and William Morris'' (2014). Lecture * ''Urban Pastorals'' (2014). Poetry pamphlet * ''Ruskin’s Language: How a Victorian Prophet Uses Words'' (2016). Lecture * (as editor) Thom Gunn, ''Selected Poems'' (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmer, Clive 1945 births Alumni of King's College, Cambridge English male poets Fellows of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Guild of St George Hungarian–English translators Living people People educated at Emanuel School