Sidney Arthur Kilworth Keyes (27 May 1922 – 29 April 1943) was an English
poet of
World War II.
Life
Early years and education
Keyes was born on 27 May 1922. His mother died shortly afterwards and he was raised by his paternal grandparents.
Keyes started writing poetry when still very young, with
Wordsworth,
Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...
and
Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
among his main influences.
He attended
Dartford Grammar School
Dartford Grammar School is a selective secondary (ages 11–19) foundation school for boys in Dartford, Kent, England, which admits girls to its sixth form (ages 16–18). All of the students joining the school are considered to be from the top ...
and then boarded at
Tonbridge School (Hillside, 1935-1940) during his secondary education, after which he won a history scholarship to
Queen's College, Oxford.
While at college, Keyes wrote the only two books of his lifetime, ''The Cruel Solstice'' and ''The Iron Laurel''. During his time in Oxford, Keyes fell in love with the young German artist
Milein Cosman, but his love was not returned. He also befriended fellow poets
John Heath-Stubbs and
Michael Meyer, edited ''The Cherwell'' magazine, and formed a dramatic society.
''The Iron Laurel'' was published during
World War II in 1942, when Keyes was 20 years old. His poetry was also published in the ''
New Statesman'', ''
The Listener'' and other poetry journals.
Military service
Keyes left Oxford and joined the
British Army in April 1942,
[Hynes 1990, p. 298] entering active service that same year. He was soon
commissioned in the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment and served with his regiment's 1st Battalion, part of the
4th Division, to fight in the final stages of the
Tunisian campaign in March 1943.
[Kendall 2006, p. 185] Prior to his service, Keyes had already written more than half of the 110 poems that would later be gathered in ''The Collected Poems of Sidney Keyes''.
During combat, he was reported to have continued writing poetry. However, these works have not survived.
Death
Keyes was killed in action on 29 April 1943, covering his platoon's retreat during a counter-attack,
shortly before his 21st birthday.
It has also been stated that he died at the hands of the enemy, following his capture.
Recognition
In 1943, Keyes was awarded the
Hawthornden Prize for ''The Cruel Solstice'' and ''The Iron Laurel''.
He has been described as one of the outstanding poets of the Second World War.
Footnotes
Bibliography
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* Roy, Pinaki. “Sidney Keyes: ''The War-poet who ‘groped for Death’''”. ''
War, Literature and the Arts'' (
U.S. Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Unit ...
) (ISSN 2169-7914), 26 (1), 2014: http://wlajournal.com/wlaarchive/26/Roy.pdf
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keyes, Sidney
1922 births
1943 deaths
British Army personnel killed in World War II
People educated at Tonbridge School
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
World War II poets
20th-century male writers
20th-century English poets
Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers