W. H. Davies

William Henry Davies ( born July 3, 1871 in Newport, Wales, † September 26, 1940 in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England) was a Welsh poet.

Life

The life story of Newport's " tramp poet " is one of the most remarkable in the history of literature: The Welshman William Henry Davies was born in impoverished circumstances. Two years after his birth, his father died. His mother remarried and left Davies and his two siblings, who were adopted by their grandparents. Davies joined as a teenager Newporter a gang of thieves, but was soon caught and punished the theft of perfume bottles. He then left school early to begin an apprenticeship as a toolmaker before he later worked as a picture frame maker.

But Davies was dissatisfied with life in Newport and emigrated at the age of 22 years in the United States. Here he lived partly as a vagrant ( Tramp ), Sailor and casual workers. After Davies lost a leg when he tried to jump onto a moving train, he returned to Britain. Unable to do physical work, Davies began to write.

George Bernard Shaw arranged the publication of his first work, The Soul's Destroyer, which after a short time, The Autobiography of a Super - Tramp (German Supertramp. Autobiography of a vagabond ) was followed. The latter novel, after which later, the well-known rock band Supertramp named, based on Davies experiences in the United States and established Davies as a writer of international reputation. Davies even wrote a number of other novels and books of poetry, but his most famous lines are from the poem Leisure:

" What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare ".

1923 Davies married the 30 years younger former prostitute Helen Payne. In the novel, Emma Young, published in 1980, described open to the author, how it came to this unusual relationship. Davies and his wife lived retired in Sussex and later in Gloucestershire. 1938, the author was honored by his hometown for his life's work. At the unveiling of an honorary plaque in the Church House Inn in Newport had Davies, whose health deteriorated, his last public appearance. W. H. Davies died in 1940 at the age of 69 years.

Works

• The Soul 's Destroyer (1905 )
• New Poems (1907 )
• The Autobiography of a Super - Tramp (1908 ) German Supertramp. Autobiography of a vagabond