E. J. Scovell (Edith Joy Scovell) Biography

British poet, born in Sheffield, educated at Somerville College, Oxford. She was a secretary and journalist before her marriage in 1937 to the biologist Charles Elton, whom she accompanied as field assistant on expeditions in South America. Her first collection of poems, Shadows of Chrysanthemums (1944), was followed by The Midsummer Meadow (1946) and The River Steamer (1956). Subsequent volumes include The Space Between (1982), Listening to Collared Doves (1986), Collected Poems (1988), and Selected Poems (1991). Her poetry's gently idiosyncratic rhythms and factually meditative tenor are among its most attractive qualities. The fusion of precisely observed natural imagery with a readily accessible visionary element in much of her best writing is exemplified by the pellucidly mysterious quality of ‘The River Steamer’.