Edgar Foxall was an English poet whose work features in one of the Penguin poetry anthologies

Penguin poetry anthologies

The Penguin poetry anthologies, published by Penguin Books, have at times played the role of a 'third force' in British poetry, less literary than those from Faber and Faber, and less academic than those from Oxford University Press....

, Poetry of the Thirties (1964). Though notable for caustic political commentary and acute social observation, the natural world is a strong recurrent theme throughout his work.

Born near Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port is a large industrial town and port in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated on the south border of the Wirral Peninsula on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, which in turn gives access to the River...

 on Merseyside

Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

, Foxall left school at fourteen, working in a range of jobs (clerk, shop foreman, part-time sports journalist) before training as a school teacher after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Taking an active interest in local politics (he was a fervent supporter of the early Labour Party (UK)

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

), Foxall was a prolific contributor to literary journals, magazines and the local and national press. In 1968, with his wife Nancy, he moved to the North Wales resort town of Llandudno

Llandudno

Llandudno is a seaside resort and town in Conwy County Borough, Wales. In the 2001 UK census it had a population of 20,090 including that of Penrhyn Bay and Penrhynside, which are within the Llandudno Community...

.

Foxall received encouragement through correspondence with both T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

 and John Masefield

John Masefield

John Edward Masefield, OM, was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1930 until his death in 1967...

. He won critical acclaim from Leonard Clark

Leonard Clark

Leonard Clark was an English poet and anthologist. He was born and brought up in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and the early experience of growing up in an essentially rural setting influenced both his prose and his poetry...

, J. C. Squire

J. C. Squire

Sir John Collings Squire was a British poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor of the post-World War I period.- Biography :...

 and Cyril Connolly

Cyril Connolly

Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...

.

Published works

• Proems (1938)

• Water Rat Sonata (1940)

• Poems (1947)

• Decade (1957)

• The Limitations of Moonlight (1973)

• Ultimate Harvest (1992)

A note on working class solidarity

One of Foxall's most famous works, published in 1933:

There will be no festivities when

We lay down these tools

For we are the massed grooves

Of grease smooth systems.

The Communist measures the future,

The Elect fear the past

But we are those ribless polyps

That nature insures

Against thought by routines,

Against triumph by tolerance

Against life by the sense of

Mechanical footbeats

Against poverty by Cant,

Extinction by syphilis

And the glory of the crucifixion

By the price of timber.