- Burns Singer
Burns Singer (1928 – 1964), born James Hyman Singer in
New York and an American citizen all his life, was a poet usually identified as Scottish. He was brought up in Scotland from a young age, and educated inGlasgow . He had Polish,Jew ish and Irish ancestry, and showed considerable interest inPolish poetry . His collaborative translations of Polish poets includedIgnacy Krasicki ,Juliusz Slowacki ,Cyprian Norwid andJerzy Peterkiewicz . Some of these appeared in theanthology "Five Centuries of Polish Poetry, 1450–1950" (1962), with Peterkiewicz, and a later edition.In 1945 he came south to London, taking some teaching work, and then went to
Cornwall where he came into contact withW. S. Graham , a major poetic influence. He studied at Glasgow University, beginning degree courses in Zoology and English; but abandoned those after the 1951 suicide of his mother. He had by then spent a year inMarburg , and done some service in theU. S. Army .He then worked for four years in
marine biology , supporting his father. In 1955 he marriedMarie Battle , an African-American psychologist; they moved to London, where he sought freelance work writing. He enjoyed a period of success in literary journalism, and as a poet. It is considered that his style was a 'middle way' or compromise: between theNew Apocalyptics andthe Movement , or theScottish Renaissance and the Sassenach. However that may be, he shortly succeeded in pleasing no one and giving offence to many, especially in his cups.He spent some time with Marie in
Cambridge , before ultimately returning to marine biology. His early death, inPlymouth , was from natural causes.Works
*"Living Silver" (1953) non-fiction
*"Still and All" (1957) (poems)
*"Five Centuries of Polish Poetry" (1962) with Jerzy Peterkiewicz
*"Collected Poems" (1970) edited by W. A. S. Keir
*"Selected Poems" (1977) edited by Anne Clusenaar
*"Collected Poems" (2001) edited by James Keery
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