Lawrence Sail (Lawrence Richard Sail) Biography

British poet, born in London, educated at St John's College, Oxford. His collections of poetry include Opposite Views (1974), The Kingdom of Atlas (1980), and Devotions (1987); Out of Land (1992) is a selected edition which includes previously uncollected work. His combination of a relaxed urbanity with strictly regulated verse structures is sometimes reminiscent of W. H. Auden's manner. Much of his poetry succeeds in maintaining a fundamentally affirmative tone while conducting unflinching explorations of suffering and grief in social and personal contexts. His imaginative visual responses to landscapes and paintings are apparent in numerous memorable poems. He edited First and Always: Poems for the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital (1988), which contained work by a wide range of eminent poets.