TOMLINSON, (ALFRED) CHARLES

born Jan. 8, 1927, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Eng. English poet whose best work expresses his perceptions of the world with clarity and sensitivity. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Tomlinson traveled extensively, especially in Italy and in the United States, where he was visiting professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and professor in literature at Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y. He later became reader and then professor of English poetry at the University of Bristol, Eng. Less concerned with people and emotions than with the outside world, his poetry has much in common with that of the American poets Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore. His poems are reinforced by his sensitivity to sound, and his writing expresses what he sees with rhythmic variety and subtlety. He is a difficult poet in that he often makes use of indirect quotation and intricate patterns of symbolism that can obscure his meaning. Tomlinson's early published poetry included Relations and Contraries (1951) and The Necklace (1955; rev. ed. 1966). He has also written, among other volumes, Seeing is Believing (1960) and American Scenes (1966), in which he captures the haunting atmosphere of ghost towns in the desert. Other works include The Poem as Initiation (1968), America West Southwest (1969), and Selected Poems 19511974 (1978). With Octavio Paz, Tomlinson wrote Air Born/Hijos del aire (1979), a bilingual EnglishSpanish volume for which each translated the other's poems. Tomlinson's responsiveness to sounds has made him an outstanding translator. His verse translations (in collaboration with Henry Gifford) are Versions from Fyodor Tyutchev (1960), Castilian Ilexes: Versions from Machado (1963), and Ten Versions from Trilce (1970), from the work of Csar Vallejo. He has also edited a number of critical works, and his series of lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1982 was published in 1983 under the title Poetry and Metamorphosis.