"Stephen Spender- Experiences and Influences"

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Quite often, it is said that most boys look at their fathers as their role models. In most boys' eyes, their father is a hero. They try to shape themselves just like their fathers at a very tender age. Sometimes, when they grow older, they are like the reflection of their fathers. Not only do they have the same looks but they also have the same morals and values as their fathers once did. Sometimes, these children learn from their father and develop a very intense interest in their father's profession. More often than not, a person's family helps in shaping the person's future. A person is usually a portrait of where he comes from, what he has been through, the hardships he has seen and the experiences that he has had through his life.

Stephen Spender was born in London, England on the 28th day of February in the year 1909. His father, Edward Harold Spender was a journalist and a lecturer. Moreover, not surprisingly, he took much interest in his father's profession. He was also the nephew of the liberal journalist and biographer J.A Spender. Spender's mother was half German and half German Jewish. He also had a younger sister, Margaret who died of cancer at a

young age, on Christmas day in 1945. From the year 1928 till 1930 he was educated at Oxford. Oxford was at that time and has always been one of the most prestigious University colleges. Stephen Spender was a member of the generation of British poets who are came to prominence in the 1930s, a group- sometimes referred to as the Oxford Poets- that included W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, C.Day Lewis, and Louis MacNeice. (Eder,Doris). In his autobiograohy he mentioned that from the years 1930 till 1933 he had a homosexual relationship with Christopher Isherwood. Durin...

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...ent toward, philosophy, aesthetics, religion, politics, and sexuality." He admired those who were truly great and appreciated their hard work after everything he had been through. Even though he initially went by Marxist ideologies, later on in life, his views changed. He did not have any solid political views and his life made him a more liberal human being. The war, his relationships, nature, great artists, all inspired him to write. Writing was his true love until the end of his life for his last piece of work was published when he was 85 years of age. Stephen

Spender lived a great life. He was able to share his experiences and what he had leant from them through his writing with the rest of the world. Spender died in 1995, and he too was amongst those who he called `truly great'.

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