Sir Stephen Harold Spender and his Poetry

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If one were to look at the life of Stephen Spender briefly they would think that he was a bizarre maybe even troubled man. However, if you look deeply into his life you will see beyond the strangeness. Stephen was indeed a unique man that lived a complicated life to which created his uniqueness that we see demonstrated through his poetry. While most people tend to avoid unintentional controversy, Stephen Spender wrote many poems which most of us would feel as controversial. His goal however was not to start controversy but to stand up for the rights of all people and the rights for us to all express ourselves freely.
Spender was born on February 28, 1909 in London England. His parent’s names were Edward Harold Spender and Violet Hilda Schuster. Stephen Spender's mother came from a wealthy Jewish family. Spender’s dad was a supporter of the liberal cause and he strongly believed in idealism. His father provided the family with a comfortable life style and didn't believe in wasting money. Stephen Spender spent most of his childhood in Hampstead and Norfolk. Stephen had a sister and two brothers. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Stephen Spenders mother died when he was twelve years old. His father died when Stephen was seventeen. Hilda Schuster which was Stephens’s grandmother raised him. She influenced him to set high goals and understand why he wanted to be a poet. Stephen Spender attended the University of Oxford. He spent a lot of time there with other poets. W.H. Auden was a very close and dear friend of Stephen's. Spender was married twice. He married Natasha Litvin in 1936 and his second wife in 1941. Stephen had two children. The boy was named Mathew and the girl's name was Lizzie. Stephen died on July 16, 1995 from heart failure....

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...pics that we would steer clear from. Stephen Spender should be held in high regard for approaching such topics and teaching us the need to question our ideas and reason. Stephen Spender was greatly influenced by grandmother, which raised hum after his mother died and led him in the right direction of success in life.

Work Cited
Sir Stephen Spender. Encyclopedia Britannica. 7 Apr, 2014. www.britannica.com
Stephen Harlold Spender. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com
7 Apr. 2014
Spender, Stephen. The World Book: Encyclopedia. Chicago, London, Rome: Field Educational Enterprise, 1971
Spender, Stephen. The Language of Literature, "What I Expected" Arthur N. Applebee et al.
Evanston, IL 60204, 2006
Spender, Stephen. World within World. The Autobiography of Stephen Spender, Berkeley
University of California, 1966

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