Autumn-Born in Autumn

Selected Poems

Mead Matthew

Matthew Mead began publishing his poetry in the 1960s. By then he had, as Peter Riley noted, "located a sense of poetry for which he drew widely from Anglo-American writing, avoiding any programmes of allegiance". Over the years he has published five collections of poetry. As he once wrote, "I have tried not to avoid what has happened in poetry and psycho-politics during this [20th] century".

In his essay which is appended to this collection, Dick Davis analyses the special and uncommon qualities of Mead's poetry, concluding "His tone is unmistakable, and once encountered it is never forgotten".

About the Author

Matthew Mead (1924-2009) was born in Slapton, Buckinghamshire. He served in the British army from 1942 to 1947, including three years in India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Singapore. He edited the poetry magazine Satis. From 1962 he lived in Germany and, with his wife Ruth, translated many German poets, including Johannes Bobrowski, Heinz Winfried Sabais and Nelly Sachs. His first collection Identities was published in 1967 and a selection of his poems appeared in Penguin Modern Poets 16 in 1970. "The Autumn-Born in Autumn" (2008) is Matthew Mead's own selection from his poetry.

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