Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson, (January 8 1914 – May 30 1987), was an English poet, known for his association with the Cumbrian town of Millom. His poetry is noted for its local concerns, straightforwardness of language and inclusion of elements of common speech.

Life

---

Nicholson was born in a Victorian terraced house in the small industrial town of Millom in Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District. He was to live in the same house for most of his life and only left his native town once. He wore large and distinctive side whiskers which gave him a slightly eccentric air. His writing career stretched from 1940 up until the time of his death. He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1977, and the OBE in 1981. His works include the typically titled Rock Face (1948) and the later Sea to the West (1981). A memorial to the poet can be found in St Georges church in Millom in the form of a specially commissioned stained glass window.

Work

---

Nicholson's work is characterised by the simplicity and directness of his language. He attempted to write in the vernacular of the common people in his native town. Much of his work concerned mining, quarrying and ironworks—the dominant industries in his area. Religion and faith was another aspect of his work. His poetry also abounds with direct quotations from everyday life, skilfully weaved into the body of the poem. The opening of Old Man at a Cricket Match, is typical:

More on [ Norman Nicholson ]

NPR Topics: Authors

Columnist Krugman Wins Nobel For Economics
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:10:00 -0400
Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity.
Le Clezio, Portrait Of A Gentle Writer
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:19:00 -0400
Though born in France, Nobel laureate Jean-Marie Gustav Le Clezio is a nomadic writer, whose work has been defined by his life of travel around the world. For him, storytelling means melting into the background.
Memoir Lives Life As A Widow
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:00:00 -0400
Anne Roiphe was so dependent on her husband she literally didn't know how to open the front door without him. In her memoir of widowhood, she also remembers how he told her, years before he died, that he felt their marriage had been so strong, she would be able to find happiness again.
A Furious Voice, Forged In The 'Fire' Of Prejudice
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:03:00 -0400
Jamaican-American novelist Michelle Cliff's essays — urgent, stripped of lyrical excess, discomfiting but illuminating — bear witness to a rough life that has shaped a radical, powerful and essential artist.
French Novelist Awarded Nobel Literature Prize
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:08:00 -0400
French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature. Antoine Compagnon, a professor of French Literature at Columbia University, says there are two periods in Le Clezio's work: it was more experimental in the 1960s and '70s, and later it featured traveling and exoticism.
Celebrating Grace Paley's Uniquely Feminine Voice
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:35:00 -0400
Writer Alix Kates Shulman remembers the 1960s as an age where men dominated the literary scene — that is, until Grace Paley's quirky urban voice and modernist short stories began to challenge the notion of what constituted great reading.

Subscribe to Authors RSS feed