Roy Campbell (poet) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Roy Campbell
(Left to right) Roy Campbell, Mary Campbell, Jacob Kramer, and Dolores, 1920s
Born	Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell (1901-10-02)2 October 1901 Durban, Colony of Natal, British Empire (present-day South Africa)
Died	23 April 1957(1957-04-23) (aged 55) Setúbal, Portugal
Occupation	Poet, journalist
Genre	Poetry
Literary movement	English romantic revival, satire
Notable works	The Flaming Terrapin, Adamastor, Flowering Reeds
Notable awards	Foyle Prize
Spouse	Mary Margaret Garman

Ignatius Royston Dunnachie Campbell, known as Roy Campbell (born October 2, 1901 – died April 23, 1957), was a famous South African poet. He also worked as a literary critic (someone who reviews books) and a literary translator (someone who changes books from one language to another). He was also known for his satire, which means he used humor or irony to make fun of people's mistakes.

Roy Campbell was born in Durban, which was then part of the British Empire, in what is now South Africa. His family was of Scottish background. He was sent to England to study at Oxford University. But instead, he chose to live a creative and artistic life in London. After he married Mary Garman, he wrote a very popular poem called The Flaming Terrapin. This poem helped him become well-known in the world of British literature.

After some time, Campbell returned to South Africa. He worked as an editor for a magazine called Voorslag. While there, he supported the idea of racial equality, meaning fair treatment for all races. He then went back to England and spent time with a group of writers and artists called the Bloomsbury Group. However, Campbell soon felt that this group was snobby and against Christian beliefs. He wrote a long, funny poem called The Georgiad to make fun of them. This poem hurt his standing with other writers.

Later, Campbell became a Catholic in Spain. He openly supported Francisco Franco and his group, the Nationalists, during the Spanish Civil War. Because of this, some influential writers who held left-wing views called him a "fascist." This label further damaged his reputation as a poet. During Second World War, Campbell served in the British Army. At this time, he met and became friends with famous writers like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

After the war, Campbell continued to write, translate poems, and give talks. He also joined other South African writers, like Laurens van der Post and Alan Paton, to speak out against apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid was a system of unfair racial separation. Roy Campbell died in a car accident in Portugal in 1957.

Even though famous poets like T. S. Eliot and Dylan Thomas thought Roy Campbell was one of the best poets between the two World Wars, the idea that he was a fascist has continued to harm how people see his work. However, some critics are now trying to show his importance again.

Roy Campbell's Writing Style

Much of Roy Campbell's poetry was satirical, meaning it made fun of things in a clever way. He often wrote in heroic couplets. This is a style where two lines rhyme and have a specific rhythm. This style was not very common in the 20th century. He usually preferred poems that rhymed.

The poet Edith Sitwell said that Roy Campbell was one of the greatest poets of their time. She described his poems as having "a giant's strength and power" and being "extraordinarily beautiful."

Roy Campbell's Impact

Roy Campbell's satirical poetry often made fun of the ideas of British intelligentsia (intellectuals), such as Marxism (a political and economic theory), Nihilism (the belief that life has no meaning), and narcissism (being too focused on oneself). This made him a very debated person in English-speaking countries for a long time.

He also criticized what he saw as racism among White South Africans. This made him equally debated in South Africa under Apartheid.

In 1982, the South African author Jack Cope wrote a book called The Adversary Within. He praised the "Voorslag Affair," which was when Campbell edited the Voorslag magazine. Cope called it "one of the most important moral and intellectual revolts" in South African literature.

Roy Campbell also greatly influenced Afrikaans literature through his friendship with the Afrikaner poet Uys Krige. According to Jack Cope, Uys Krige became the best translator of poetry from Romance languages (like French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) into Afrikaans in the 20th century. This was thanks to his skills and Campbell's ideas about translation. Krige translated many works, including plays by William Shakespeare.

Krige also became a mentor to many young Afrikaans poets and writers in a group called the Sestigers. Because of Krige's influence, many Afrikaner intellectuals in South Africa under Apartheid became known for opposing the South African Government.

Campbell is also known for bringing back the styles of mock epics and satirical poetry in heroic couplets into the 20th century. These styles were popular in the times of poets like John Dryden and Alexander Pope. He updated these styles for his own time. Today, some poets, especially in the American poetry movement called New Formalism, still follow his example.

Selected Works

• The Flaming Terrapin (1924)
• Voorslag (1926–1927), a monthly magazine edited by Roy Campbell, and others.
• The Wayzgoose: A South African Satire (1928)
• Adamastor (1930)
• Poems (1930)
• The Gum Trees (1931)
• The Georgiad – A Satirical Fantasy in Verse (1931)
• Taurine Provence (1932)
• Pomegranates (1932)
• Burns (1932)
• Flowering Reeds (1933)
• Broken Record (1934)
• Mithraic Emblems (1936)
• Flowering Rifle: A Poem from the Battlefield of Spain (1936)
• Sons of the mistral (1938)
• Talking Bronco (1946)
• Poems of Baudelaire: A Translation of Les Fleurs du Mal (1946)
• Light on a Dark Horse: An Autobiography (1952)
• Lorca (1952)
• Cousin Bazilio by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz (Translated in 1953)
• The Mamba's Precipice (1953) (A story for children)
• Nativity (1954)
• Portugal (1957)
• Wyndham Lewis (1985)

See also

In Spanish: Roy Campbell para niños