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A selection of the prose writings of the poet and novelist Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-72), poet laureate and Oxford professor of poetry, who published more than twenty volumes of poetry in his lifetime.

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C. Day-Lewis was a major figure in British poetry and culture from the 1930s until his death in 1972. The Golden Bridle: Selected Prose takes its title from the myth of Bellerophon and the golden bridle of Pegasus, which Day-Lewis invoked on several occasions as a metaphor for the creative process. Day-Lewis as poet is, then, the organizing idea of this anthology, and the selections indicate the scope and range of his vital engagement with English life and
letters.

Organised into four parts, the volume illustrates Day-Lewis´s reflections on the role and function of poetry in society and culture; the creative process and the workings of the imagination as well as the nature of poetic truth and its relation to science; poets who were of particular importance to Day-Lewis; and the poetic process in relation to the composition of several of his own poems. The notes indicate the particular source, circumstances, and central issues of each piece, to provide a
brief intellectual biography and critical account of this eminent poet´s development and standing.

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For anyone wanting an elegant, accessible, thought-provoking exploration of poetry and its unique power to change minds as well as hearts, the texts collected here are less a golden bridle and more a gold mine. The Spectator

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