The Life of a Poet

WELCOME to the official C Day-Lewis site,
set up in November 2007 by his admirers,
working closely with the Day-Lewis estate,
and regularly updated. The site aims to offer
those who are interested in the work of
Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972), a chance to
learn a little more about the man and his
writings. As well as a brief biographical sketch, there are essays by distinguished critics on his enduring reputation as a poet, and the full texts of some of his best, and best-known, poems.

There is also the chance to hear Day-Lewis’s widow, the celebrated actress Jill Balcon (pictured above with Day-Lewis at Dartington Hall), read some of the selected poems. These are taken from a recently released CD of her one-woman show about her life with C Day-Lewis, including her reading 12 of his poems, interspersed with some of her memories of him. You can order the CD from our Further Reading page.

Jill Balcon worked on setting up this site before her death in July 2009. A tribute to her is included on the site and can be accessed via the menu on the left.

Links are also provided to books in print by and about Day-Lewis for those who wish to take things further. And a Guest Book is offered so that visitors to the site can share their thoughts about Day-Lewis, his work and any recollections of a man who is fondly remembered by many to this day. All these features of the site can be accessed by following the links on the left.

Privacy Statement

We collect two kinds of information from visitors to this site: e-mail registration information and site usage information from server log files. With our Guest Book, we ask you to submit an email address. Since the purpose of this is simply to ensure that those who make contributions are genuine. We do not ask for any data over and above this. We will never pass your email address data to third parties. Server log files allow us to record visitors' use of the site. We put together log file information from all our visitors, which we use to make changes to the layout of this site and to the information in it, based on the way that visitors move around it. Log files do not contain any personal information. This site also contains links to third-party client and partner sites. We do not control and are not responsible for the collection of any information by any of these third parties, whose privacy practices may differ from our own. Any changes to our privacy policy will be detailed in full on this page.