He was out of tune with what a younger generation of poets were writing, and railed against the shallowness and commercialisation of the modern world, from his fastness: a farmhouse surrounded by orchards in Middleton, Suffolk.

I suppose that I am a very serious poet - except for satirical verse, which I have also been compelled to write, though much of it may be inferior to my more s…

Translation came naturally to me because as a child I was translated from Germany to Britain.

I was invited to Romania at least once, but was warned that I should not be free to travel where I pleased in the country, but should be more or less confined …