Alun Lewis (1 July 1915 – 5 March 1944) was a Welsh poet. He is one of the best-known English-language war poets of the Second World War. His poetry centres around a "recurring obsession with the themes of isolation and death."
Life and work
Alun Lewis, was born on 1 July 1915 at Cwmaman, near Aberdare in the Cynon Valley of the South Wales Coalfields. His parents, Thomas John and Gwladys Lewis, were school teachers at Llanwern; and he had a younger sister, Mair and two brothers. By the time he won a scholarship to attend Cowbridge Grammar School, he was already interested in writing. He went on to study at Aberystwyth University and the University of Manchester. Although he was born in South Wales, he wrote in English only.
Lewis was unsuccessful as a journalist and instead earned his living as a supply teacher. He met the poet Lynette Roberts (whose poem "Llanybri" is an invitation to him to visit her home), even though she was married to another poet, Keidrych Rhys. In 1939, Lewis met Gweno Meverid Ellis, Scholars have noted the thematic and formal influence of Edward Thomas on his work—Lewis's poem "To Edward Thomas" is dedicated to the poet.
Lewis died on 5 March 1944 during the Burma campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army. He was found shot in the head, after shaving and washing, near the officers' latrines, with his revolver in his hand, and died from his wound six hours later. Despite it being a case of suicide, a court of inquiry charitably concluded that he had tripped and that the shooting was an accident. He is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery.