Question

Essay on lascelles abercrombie

Answer 1



In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

28 LASCELLES ABERCROMBIEi A BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY By Esther Safer Fisher (Toronto, Ontario) In the first four decades of this century, Lascelles Abercrombie (I88I-I938) was considered to be a poet and critic displaying no small degree of merit. His first volume of verse (I9O8) was hailed for its "powers and originality"; D. H. Lawrence found Abercrombie's Emblems of Love (1911) "rather fine - magnificent phraseology"; and Abercrombie 's later The Sale of Saint Thomas was seen in 1932 as "perhaps the most considerable poem of length since The Waste Land."1 At present, his name has almost faded into obscurity; aside from occasional references to him in works dealing with the Georgians, an excellent bibliography of his works and a published thesis treating the poetry,2 little attention has been focused on Abercrombie himself since Oliver Elton's sensitive posthumous study in 1939· In a sense Abercrombie was a victim of the first World War. Born into Victorian times, he emerged in Edwardian, reaching his apogee and, in his own view, the nadir of his experience in the modern age. Not only was Abercrombie a complex figure with wide connections in the literary and sometimes political world of his day, but from the vantage point of the 'eighties he can also be seen as a symbol of his time. It is time for a reappraisal. I Victorian and Edwardian Born at Manor House, Ashton-upon-Mersey, 9 February 1881, Lascelles Abercrombie was the fifth son among nine surviving children of William Abercrombie, a Manchester stock broker, and Sarah Anne Heron. The large prosperous family enjoyed a happy, spirited life in the Cheshire countryside. Sunday afternoons were spent listening to the father read poetry, and although not encouraged by the pater familias, at nine years of age the young Lascelles, a thin delicate boy, was already writing verse.-1 The idyllic life at the Manor House ended in I889 or I890 when the family moved to a new house in Brooklands. From about this time until 1895. Abercrombie attended a preparatory school at Lockers Park, Hemel Hempstead, and from 1895 until I900 he was at House 4 at Malvern College. His interests lay in both the Classics and Science and he had to choose between two worlds. Abercrombie chose to study Chemistry at Owens College. In 1902 he left Owens without completing his certification requirements.