Mr Bruce Summers

Keele Books of Life



Bruce Summers is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Princess Royal Hospital and lead tutor for Medical Humanities at the University of Keele Medical School. 

He has a BA honours degree in the  Humanities with a particular interest in the History of Art but he is an avid reader of poetry and in particular the works of Edward Thomas, Roger McGough, Philip Larkin and Wilfred Owen.

In Memoriam

( Easter 1915)

by

Edward Thomas


When the First  War  broke out Edward Thomas had doubts about joining up. In 1915 he did enlist, and was soon promoted to the position of officer.

Before travelling to France, Thomas wrote all of the poems for which he is now famous, he was killed almost as soon as he saw action, killed in the Battle of Arras, 1917.

Aubade

by

Philip Larkin


Born in Coventry in 1922, Larkin was anti-social in the extreme and a great lover  of American jazz, he  never married and worked as a librarian in  Hull, where he died on December 2, 1985.

Vinegar

by

Roger McGough


Roger McGough is arguably the most famous of the Liverpool Poets.

Born in 1937, his poetry first reached a mass audience in the Penguin Modern Poets collection The Mersey Sound and went on to sell over a million copies.

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Futility

by

Wilfred Owen


Born in Oswestry in 1893, Owen he began writing poetry at ther age of 19. He volunteered for service during the 1914 - 1918 World War and is recongised as one of the greatets of htat generation of War Poets.He was killed in action on November 4th 1918, sewven days before the end of the war.

Comeclose and Sleepnow

by

Roger McGough


McGough  believes a poet is anyone who writes poetry, and a poem is that which is written by a poet. He  believes that you become a poet the moment you write your first poem. "I know that sounds pretentious, and I remember Auberon Waugh sort of throwing a chair at me for saying that, but it happens to be true."

Musee de Beaux Arts

by

W H Auden


Auden (1907-1973) is  considered to be one of  the most influential voices in 20th Century poetry.He published over  four hundred poems in a breathtaking  range of styles,  in adddition to writing plays and critical essays.