Editing Elizabeth Jennings (poet) (section)

==Life and career==
Elizabeth Jennings was born at The Bungalow, Tower Road, [[Skirbeck]], [[Boston, Lincolnshire]], younger daughter of physician Henry Cecil Jennings (1893–1967), MA, BSc ([[University of Oxford|Oxon.]]), [[Bachelor_of_Medicine,_Bachelor_of_Surgery|MB BS]] ([[St Thomas's Hospital Medical School|Lond.]]), [[Doctor of Public Health|DPH]], [[Medical_officer_of_health#United_Kingdom|medical officer of health]] for Oxfordshire, and (Helen) Mary, née Turner.<ref>''The Medical Officer'', index to vol. CXVIII, July to December 1967, p. 327.</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-76379|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/76379|title =Jennings, Elizabeth Joan|first=Neil|last=Powell|year = 2004}}</ref> When Elizabeth was seven years old, her family moved to [[Oxford]], where she remained for the rest of her life.<ref Name="Couzyn">[[Jeni Couzyn|Couzyn, Jeni]] (1985), ''Contemporary Women Poets''. Bloodaxe, pp. 98–100.</ref> There, she later attended [[St Anne's College, Oxford|St Anne's College]]. After graduation, she became a writer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=1554|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051231041146/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=1554|url-status=dead|archive-date=31 December 2005|title=Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001)|website=poetryarchive.org}}</ref>
{{Quote box |width=380px |align=right|quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
|quote =<poem>
It was a yellow voice, a high, shrill treble in the nursery
White always and high, I remember it so,
White cupboard, off-white table, mugs, dolls' faces
And I was four or five. The garden could have been
Miles away. We were taken down to the green
Asparagus beds, the cut lawn, and the smell of it
Comes each summer after rain when white returns. Our bird,
A canary called Peter, sang behind bars. The black and white cat
Curled and snoozed by the fire and danger was far away.
</poem>
|source =From [https://poetryarchive.org/poem/bird-house/ "A Bird in the House"]<br> in ''Collected Poems'' (Carcanet, 1987)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://poetryarchive.org/poem/bird-house/|title=A Bird in the House |website= The Poetry Archive|access-date=18 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120815105453/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do|archive-date=15 August 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

Jennings's early poetry was published in journals such as ''[[Oxford Poetry]]'', ''[[New English Weekly]]'', ''[[The Spectator]]'', ''Outposts'' and ''[[Poetry Review]]'', but her first book of poems was not published until she was 27. The lyrical poets she cited as having influenced her were [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]], [[W. H. Auden]], [[Robert Graves]] and [[Edwin Muir]].<ref Name="Couzyn"/> Her second book, ''A Way of Looking'' (1955), won the [[Somerset Maugham Award]] and marked a turning point, as the prize money allowed her to spend nearly three months in [[Rome]], which was a revelation. It brought a new dimension to her religious belief and inspired her imagination.<ref Name="Couzyn"/>

Regarded as traditionalist rather than an innovator, Jennings is known for her lyric poetry and mastery of form.<ref Name="Couzyn"/> Her work displays a simplicity of metre and rhyme shared with [[Philip Larkin]], [[Kingsley Amis]] and [[Thom Gunn]], all members of the 1950s group of English poets known as [[Movement (literature)|The Movement]].<ref Name="Couzyn"/> She always made it clear that, while her life, which included a spell of severe mental illness, contributed to the themes contained within her work, she did not write explicitly autobiographical poetry. Her deeply held [[Roman Catholicism]] coloured much of her work.<ref Name="Couzyn"/>

She had difficulty managing the practical aspects of her career and life. She became impoverished and struggled with mental health, and her personal difficulties tarnished her critical reputation.  When she was honoured by the queen in 1992, Jennings wore a "knitted hat, duffle coat, and canvas shoes". The tabloid newspapers mocked her as "the bag-lady of the sonnets", and the unfortunate description stayed with her.

Jennings spent the later years of her life in various short-term lodgings and in Unity House (8 St Andrew's Lane) in [[Old Headington]]. She died in a care home in [[Bampton, Oxfordshire]], at the age of 75. She is buried in [[Wolvercote Cemetery]], Oxford.<ref name="Dana Gioia">{{cite web|url=https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/05/clarify-me-please-god-of-the-galaxies|title=Clarify Me, Please, God of the Galaxies - Dana Gioia {{!}} In Praise of the Poetry of Elizabeth Jennings|first=Dana|last=Gioia|date=May 2018|access-date=7 May 2024}}</ref>

Her life and career were reviewed in 2018 by [[Dana Gioia]], who said: "Despite her worldly failures, her artistic career was a steady course of achievement. Jennings ranks among the finest British poets of the second half of the twentieth century. She is also England's best Catholic poet since Gerard Manley Hopkins."<ref name="Dana Gioia" />

The first biography of Jennings was published by [[Oxford University Press]] in 2018, entitled ''Elizabeth Jennings: The Inward War'', written by Dana Greene.<ref name=Stanford>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/06/elizabeth-jennings-inward-war-review|title=Elizabeth Jennings: The Inward War by Dana Greene – review|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|first=Peter|last=Stanford|author-link=Peter Stanford|date=6 January 2019|access-date=10 March 2025}}</ref>