Elizabeth Daryush Biography

British poet, the daughter of Robert Bridges; she was born in London and educated privately. After her marriage in 1923 she travelled with her husband to Persia, his native country, and returned to England in 1927. Her first collection of poetry, Charitessi (1911), was followed by two other early volumes, Verses (1916) and Sonnets from Hafez (1921). She subsequently disclaimed these, however, considering her achievement as a poet to consist of a series of volumes from Verses (1930) to Verses: Sixth Book (1938). A Selected Poems with an introduction by Yvor Winters was published in America in 1948, with a revised and enlarged British selected edition appearing in 1972. Daryush's interest in metrical experiment, also a feature of her father's poetry, resulted in her frequent use of syllabic metres, which she developed, generally in combination with rhyme, to a high degree of lyrical refinement. Her poetry is notable for the austerity and decorousness of its recurrent philosophical reflections on transience and for its idiosyncratic use of archaic diction. Donald Davie edited her Collected Poems (1976), arguing in his introductory essay for wider recognition of her achievement as a contemplative and innovative poet.