World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Peter Porter

ピーター・ポーター

Pītā Pōtā

Aliases: Peter Neville Frederick Porter

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1929-02-16 (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
Died
2010-04-23 (London, United Kingdom) age 81
Nationality
Australian, British
Languages
English
Religion
Anglicanism
Residence History
Brisbane, Australia → London, United Kingdom

Career

Occupations
poet, advertising executive, journalist
Active Years
1951-2010
Affiliations
The Group, Royal Albert Hall (Poet in Residence)
Memberships
Royal Society of Literature
Influenced By
W. H. Auden, John Ashbery, Wallace Stevens

Education

Anglican Church Grammar School
Year of Graduation: 1947
Country: Australia
then known as the Church of England Grammar School

Awards

Duff Cooper Memorial Prize
1983
Work: Collected Poems
Result: 受賞
Whitbread Poetry Award
1988
Work: Automatic Oracle
Result: 受賞
Australian Literature Society Gold Medal
1990
Work: Possible Worlds
Result: 受賞
Age Book of the Year Poetry Prize
1997
Work: Dragons in their Pleasant Palaces
Result: コ受賞
King's Lynn Award for Merit in Poetry
1998
Result: 受賞
Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal
2000
Result: 受賞
Forward Poetry Prize
2002
Work: Max Is Missing
Result: 受賞
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
2002
Result: 受賞
Medal of the Order of Australia
2004
Organization: Government of Australia
Result: 受賞
Royal Society of Literature Companion of Literature
2007
Organization: Royal Society of Literature
Result: 受賞
Age Book of the Year Poetry Prize
2009
Work: Better Than God
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Once Bitten Twice Bitten

1961 Poetry

First collection

satire

The Cost of Seriousness

1978 Poetry

Work affected by wife's suicide

elegy

Automatic Oracle

1987 Poetry

Better Than God

2009 Poetry

Last collection

Bibliography

  • Once Bitten Twice Bitten
  • Poems Ancient and Modern
  • The Last of England
  • After Martial
  • Preaching to the Converted
  • Jonah
  • Living in a Calm Country
  • The Cost of Seriousness
  • English Subtitles
  • Fast Forward
  • The Automatic Oracle
  • Possible Worlds
  • The Chair of Babel
  • Dragons in Their Pleasant Palaces
  • Max Is Missing
  • Afterburner
  • Better Than God
  • Chorale at the Crossing

Adaptations

  • Scars band recorded 'Your Attention Please'

Translations by Author

  • After Martial
  • Michelangelo, Life, Letters, and Poetry
  • A Day Within Days (Liu Hongbin)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
From epigrams and satires of early works to elegiac mode of later ones

Health

  • liver cancer
    2009-2010
    cause of death

Legacy

One of the finest poets of the second half of the 20th century, Australian-born British-based poet known for evolution from satire to elegy.

In Popular Culture

  • Scottish post-punk band Scars recorded his poem 'Your Attention Please'.

Trivia

  • Mother died in 1938 of burst gall-bladder.
  • First wife Jannice Henry committed suicide in 1974.
  • Emigrated to England in 1951.
  • Australian Book Review renamed its poetry prize the Peter Porter Poetry Prize in his honour.