Clere Parsons (Clere Trevor James Herbert Parsons) Biography

British poet, born in India, educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of W. H. Auden, and was recognized as one of the most promising young poets of his day. He edited the annual Oxford Poetry anthology for 1928; this was prefaced with his ‘Plea For Better Criticism’, which rejected Georgian poetry as ‘the swan-song of Victorian poetry’ and argued in favour of verse capable of confronting urban modernity with intellectual integrity. The four poems Parsons contributed to this volume are distinctly experimental. Following his early death his sole volume, Poems, appeared in 1932. The eighteen works making up the collection display considerable accomplishment in his skilful adaptations of conventional forms. His detached urgency of tone occasionally recalls the manner of Auden's early verse.