Peter Neville Frederick Porter
OAM (16 February 192923 April 2010) was a British-based Australian poet.
Life
Porter was born in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He was educated at the
Anglican Church Grammar School
The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in East Brisbane, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Q ...
(then known as the Church of England Grammar School) and left school at eighteen to work as a trainee journalist at ''
The Courier-Mail
''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northe ...
''. However, he only lasted a year with the paper before he was dismissed.
He emigrated to England in 1951. On the boat he met the future novelist
Jill Neville. Porter was portrayed in Neville's first book, ''The Fall Girl'' (1966). After two suicide attempts, he returned to Brisbane. Ten months later he was back in England. In 1955 he began attending meetings of "
The Group". It was his association with "The Group" that allowed him to publish his first collection in 1961.
He married Jannice Henry, a nurse from
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Marlow (; historically Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow) is a town and civil parish within the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, south-southwest of High Wycombe, west-northwest of Maidenhead and ...
, in 1961 and they had two daughters (born in 1962 and 1965).
During this period he worked in advertising, and was beginning to find work in the literary press.
Jannice committed suicide in 1974, greatly affecting Porter's work, in particular ''The Cost of Seriousness''. In 1991 Porter married Christine Berg, a child psychologist.
In 2001, he was named Poet in Residence at the
Royal Albert Hall. In 2004 he was a candidate for the position of
Professor of Poetry
The Professor of Poetry is an academic appointment at the University of Oxford. The chair was created in 1708 by an endowment from the estate of Henry Birkhead. The professorship carries an obligation to lecture, but is in effect a part-time po ...
at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
.
In 2007, he was made a
Royal Society of Literature Companion of Literature, an honour bestowed on a maximum of ten living writers.
![Porter, Peter 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Porter%2C_Peter_2010.jpg)
Porter died on 23 April 2010, aged 81, after suffering from
liver cancer for a year. After news of Porter's death in 2010, the ''
Australian Book Review'' (ABR) announced that, in his honour, it would rename its ABR Poetry Prize as the Peter Porter Poetry Prize. He was buried on the eastern side of
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.
Work
His poems first appeared in the Summer 1958 and October 1959 issues of
''Delta''. The publication of his poem ''Metamorphosis'' in ''
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' in January 1960 brought his work to a wider audience. His first collection ''Once Bitten Twice Bitten'' was published by
Scorpion Press in 1961. Influences on his work include
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
,
John Ashbery and
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
. . He went through distinct poetic stages, from the epigrams and satires of his early works ''Once Bitten Twice Bitten'', to the elegiac mode of his later ones; ''The Cost of Seriousness'' and ''English Subtitles''. In a recorded conversation with his friend
Clive James he stated that the
glory of present-day English writing in America, in Australia and in Britain, is what is left over of the old regular metrical pattern and how that can be adapted to the new sense that the main element, the main fixture of poetry is no longer the foot (you know, the iambus or the trochee) but the cadence. It seems that what is very important is to get the best of the old authority, the best of the old discipline along with the best of the new freedom of expression.
In 1983 Porter was a judge in the
Booker–McConnell Prize.
Awards
* 1983:
Duff Cooper Memorial Prize
The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, C ...
for his first Collected Poems
* 1988:
Whitbread Poetry Award for ''Automatic Oracle''
* 1990:
Australian Literature Society Gold Medal
The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...
for ''Possible Worlds''
* 1997: Age Book of the Year Poetry Prize Co-winner for ''Dragons in their Pleasant Palaces''
* 1998: The First King's Lynn Award for Merit in Poetry
* 2000:
Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal at the Mildura Writer's Festival
* 2002:
Forward Poetry Prize
The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...
for ''Max Is Missing''
* 2002:
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry is awarded for a book of verse published by someone in any of the Commonwealth realms. Originally the award was open only to British subjects living in the United Kingdom, but in 1985 the scope was extended to in ...
* 2004:
Medal of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...
It's an Honour
/ref>
* 2004: Honorary Fellow of the English Association, UK
* 2007: Royal Society of Literature Companion of Literature
* 2009: Honorary Doctorate, Nottingham Trent University
* 2009: Age Book of the Year Poetry Prize for ''Better Than God''
Books
Poetry collections
* ''Once Bitten Twice Bitten'', Scorpion Press, 1961
* ''Poems Ancient and Modern'', Scorpion Press, 1964
* ''A Porter Folio,'' Scorpion Press, 1969
* '' The Last of England'', Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1970
* ''After Martial,'' Oxford University Press, 1972
* ''Preaching to the Converted,'' Oxford University Press, 1972
* ''Jonah
Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' Ben (Hebrew), son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria ...
,'' with Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...
, Secker & Warburg, 1973
* ''Living in a Calm Country,'' Oxford University Press, 1975
* ''The Lady and the Unicorn,'' with Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...
, Secker & Warburg, 1975
* ''The Cost of Seriousness,'' Oxford University Press, 1978
* ''English Subtitles,'' Oxford University Press, 1981
* ''Fast Forward,'' Oxford University Press, 1984
* ''Narcissus'' with Arthur Boyd, London: Seckers & Warburg, 1984
* ''The Automatic Oracle,'' Oxford University Press, 1987
* ''Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
,'' with Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...
, Deutsch, 1987
* ''Possible Worlds,'' Oxford University Press, 1989
* ''The Chair of Babel,'' Oxford University Press, 1992
* ''Millennial Fables,'' Oxford University Press, 1994
* ''Dragons in Their Pleasant Palaces,'' Oxford University Press, 1997
* ''Both Ends Against the Middle'', 1999, as a section in ''Collected Poems'' Volume 2
* ''Max Is Missing,'' Picador/Macmillan, 2001
* ''Afterburner,'' Picador/Macmillan, 2004
* ''Better Than God,'' Picador, 2009
* ''Chorale at the Crossing,'' Pan Macmillan, 2016 (Posthumous)
Selected and collected poetry
* ''Collected Poems'', Oxford University Press, 1983.
* ''A Porter Selected: Poems 1959–1989''. Oxford University Press, 1989.
* ''Collected Poems''. 2 vols. Oxford & Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Chapbooks
Poetry
* ''Solemn Adultery at Breakfast Creek'' The Keepsake Press, London, 1968 (200 copies)
* ''A Share of the Market'' Ulsterman Publications, Belfast, 1973.
* ''The Animal Programme: Four Poems'' Anvil Press Poetry Ltd, London, 1982 (250 copies). .
* ''Machines'' with illustrations by George Szirtes
George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...
, Mandeville, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, 1986 (250 copies). .
* ''A King's Lynn Suite,'' King's Lynn Poetry Festival, 1999.
* ''Return to Kerguelen,'' Vagabond Press, London, 2001.
Essays
* ''Browning's Important Parleying: Stylistics across two centuries'' Leo S. Olschki Editore, Firenze, 1991.
Broadsheets
* ''Words Without Music,'' Sycamore Press, 1968.
* ''Epigrams by Martial,'' Poem-of-the-Month Club, 1971.
Translations
* ''After Martial'' Oxford University Press, 1972.
* from the ''Greek Anthology'' in Penguin Classics edition
* ''Michelangelo, Life, Letters, and Poetry'', with George Bull
George Bull (25 March 1634 – 17 February 1710) was an English theologian and Bishop of St David's.
Life
He was born, 25 March 1634, in the parish of St. Cuthbert, Wells, and educated in the grammar school at Wells, and then at Blundell's ...
Oxford University Press, 1987.
* Liu Hongbin, ''A Day Within Days'', with the author. Ambit Books, London 2006.
Link to a reading of Porter's translation
Essay collections
* ''Saving from the Wreck: Essays on Poetry''. Trent, 2001.
Books edited
* ''A Choice of Pope's Verse'', Faber and Faber, 1971.
* ''New Poems, 1971–1972: A P. E. N. Anthology of Contemporary Poetry'', Hutchinson, 1972.
* ''The English Poets: From Chaucer to Edward Thomas'', with Anthony Thwaite, Secker & Warburg, 1974.
* ''New Poetry I'', with Charles Osborne, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1975.
* ''Thomas Hardy, selected'', with photographs by John Hedgecoe, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981.
* ''The Faber Book of Modern Verse'' 4th edition, originally edited by Michael Roberts, Faber and Faber, 1982.
* ''William Blake, selected'', Oxford University Press, 1986
* ''Christina Rossetti, selected'', Oxford University Press, 1986
* ''William Shakespeare'', with an introduction, C. N. Potter, 1987, Aurum, 1988.
* ''Complete Poems'', by Martin Bell
Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as " ...
, Bloodaxe, 1988.
* ''John Donne'', edited, Aurum, 1988.
* ''The Fate of Vultures: New Poetry of Africa'', with Kofi Anyidoho
Kofi Anyidoho (born 25 July 1947) is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists. , and Musaemura Zimunya. Heinemann International, 1989.
* ''Lord Byron'', Aurum, 1989
* ''W. B. Yeats: The Last Romantic'', Aurum, 1990.
* ''Percy Bysshe Shelley, selected'', Aurum, 1991.
* ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning, selected'', Aurum, 1992.
* ''Robert Burns, selected'', Aurum, 1992.
* ''The Romantic Poets: Byron, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, selected'', Aurum, 1992.
* ''Robert Browning, selected'', Aurum, 1993.
* ''Samuel Taylor Coleridge, selected'', Aurum, 1994.
* ''The Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse'', Oxford University Press, 1996.
* ''Selected Poems of Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell.
Born in India to British colonial p ...
'', Faber and Faber, 2006.
Scores and libretti
* '' Annotations of Auschwitz'', with music by David Lumsdaine, Universal Edition, 1975.
* ''Orpheus: A Chamber Opera in One Act'', music by Geoffrey Burgon
Geoffrey Alan Burgon (15 July 194121 September 2010) was an English composer best known for his television and film scores. Among his most recognisable works are '' Monty Python's Life of Brian'' for film, and '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and ...
, Chester Music, 1985.
* ''The Voice of Love'', words for a song cycle, music by Nicholas Maw
John Nicholas Maw (5 November 1935 – 19 May 2009) was a British composer. Among his works are the operas '' The Rising of the Moon'' (1970) and '' Sophie's Choice'' (2002).
Biography
Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Maw was the son of Clarence ...
.
* ''St Francis and the Wolf'', an opera for children, music by Ronald Senator
In other media
* In 1981, Scottish post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
band Scars
A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a natu ...
recorded a song of Porter's poem "Your Attention Please" on their studio album '' Author! Author!''.
Notes
Sources
* ''When London Calls: The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists to Britain'', Cambridge University Press, 1999
* Kaiser, John R: ''Peter Porter: A Bibliography 1954 – 1986'' Mansell, London and New York, 1990. .
* Steele, Peter, ''Peter Porter: Oxford Australian Writers'' Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992.
External links
Interview of Peter Porter by Ramona Koval, audio and transcript of The Book Show on ABC Radio National, on his last collection, Better than God, 15 April 2009
* Anthony Thwaite
"Peter Porter: Poet celebrated as among the finest of the second half of the 20th century"
''The Independent'', 24 April 2010.
* Robert Potts
"Peter Porter obituary"
''The Guardian'', 23 April 2010.
Obituary
in the ''Oxonian Review
''The Oxonian Review'' is a literary magazine produced by postgraduate students at the University of Oxford. Every fortnight during term time, an online edition is published featuring reviews and essays on current affairs and literature. It is ...
''
Poetry Foundation profile
Profile
at Poetry Archive
''Oxonian Review''. 24 May, 2010, Issue 12.3 memorial essay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Peter
1929 births
2010 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
20th-century British male writers
20th-century British poets
ALS Gold Medal winners
Australian emigrants to England
Australian poets
British male poets
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from liver cancer
Fellows of the English Association
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School
People from Brisbane
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia