The Poetry of Elinor Wylie

Location:

United States

Genres:

Networks:

Description:

Elinor Morton Hoyt was born on 7th September, 1885 in Somerville, New Jersey and from age 12 grew up in Washington D C where her father served as assistant attorney general and later solicitor general. Her early education together with her renowned beauty suggests she was being trained for life as a debutante but her life quickly found another route as she became absorbed in the world of books. An early marriage following her graduation ended when, after being pursued by Horace Wylie, 17 years her senior and a married Washington lawyer with three children, she eloped to England with him. His wife would not divorce him and the subsequent scandal was widely publicised further fueled by the suicide in 1912 of her abandoned husband. With Wylie's encouragement she published in 1912, ‘Incidental Number’, assembled from poems of the previous decade. Despite a child from her first marriage Elinor subsequently endured miscarriages, a stillbirth and a premature child who lived for only one week. When Wylie’s deserted wife agreed to a divorce, the couple returned to the United States and married but they were already drawing apart. In 1921, Elinor’s ‘Nets to Catch the Wind’, was published. It was an immediate success and a prize-winner. In New York’s literary circles she found her next husband who acted as her agent – the poer William Rose Benét, brother of the famed Stephen. They married in 1923 and that same year ‘Black Armor’, was published. The New York Times said "There is not a misplaced word or cadence in it." She also published her first of four novels, ‘Jennifer Lom’, to excellent reviews. She worked for a time as the poetry editor of Vanity Fair, an editor of Literary Guild, and a contributing editor of The New Republic. Her third book of poetry, ‘Trivial Breath’ arrived in 1928 as did the failure of her marriage with Benét. She moved again to England and fell in love with a friend’s husband, to whom she wrote, and later published a series of 19 sonnets; ‘Angels and Earthly Creatures’. Elinor Wylie suffered high blood pressure all her adult life and this eventually led to her death at Benet’s New York apartment on 16th December, 1928 where she suffered a stroke. She was 43. 1 - The Poetry of Elinor Wylie - An Introduction 2 - Wild Peaches by Elinor Wylie 3 - Escape by Elinor Wylie 4 - Ophelia by Elinor Wylie 5 - The Puritan's Ballad by Elinor Wylie 6 - Velvet Shoes by Elinor Wylie 7 - Parting Gift by Elinor Wylie 8 - Little Elegy by Elinor Wylie 9 - Love Song by Elinor Wylie 10 - Quarrel by Elinor Wylie 11 - Valentine by Elinor Wylie 12 - Les Lauriers Sont Coupee by Elinor Wylie 13 - Sunset on the Spire by Elinor Wylie 14 - Phases of the Moon by Elinor Wylie 15 - Full Moon by Elinor Wylie 16 - Nadir by Elinor Wylie 17 - Address to My Soul by Elinor Wylie 18 - The Child on the Curbstone by Elinor Wylie 19 - The Eagle and the Mole by Elinor Wylie 20 - The Falcon by Elinor Wylie 21 - A Proud Lady by Elinor Wylie 22 - Preference by Elinor Wylie 23 - Nancy by Elinor Wylie 24 - The Lion and the Lamb by Elinor Wylie 25 - Beauty by Elinor Wylie 26 - The Tortoise in Eternity by Elinor Wylie 27 - The Fairy Goldsmith by Elinor Wylie 28 - Innocent Landscape by Elinor Wylie 29 - A Madman's Song by Elinor Wylie 30 - Poor Earth by Elinor Wylie 31 - The Church Bell by Elinor Wylie 32 - Cold Blooded Creatures by Elinor Wylie 33 - Let No Charitable Hope by Elinor Wylie 34 - Little Joke by Elinor Wylie 35 - Pretty Words by Elinor Wylie 36 - Incantation by Elinor Wylie 37 - Fire and Sle Author - Elinor Wylie. Narrator - Kelly Burke. Published Date - Tuesday, 31 January 2023.

Language:

English