Edith Sitwell
Overview
Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and critic.
Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall
Renishaw Hall
Renishaw Hall is a stately home in Derbyshire, England which dates from the 17th century. It is a Grade I listed building. It has been the home of the Sitwell family for over 350 years....

; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping. Her mother was the former Lady Ida Emily Augusta Denison, a daughter of the Earl of Londesborough and a granddaughter of Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort
Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort
Major Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort KG , styled Earl of Glamorgan until 1803 and Marquess of Worcester between 1803 and 1835, was a British peer, soldier and politician.-Background:...

.
Quotations

I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... But I am too busy thinking about myself.

As quoted in The Observer (30 April 1950)

I have taken this step because I want the discipline, the fire and the authority of the Church. I am hopelessly unworthy of it, but I hope to become worthy.

On converting to Roman Catholicism at the age of 67, in news reports (15 Aug 1955), as quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) compiled by James B. Simpson

My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life.

"Some notes on my poetry" Collected Poems (1957)

The poet is a brother speaking to a brother of "a moment of their other lives" — a moment that had been buried beneath the dust of the busy world.

"The Poet's Vision" (1959)

I am an unpopular electric eel in a pool of catfish.

Life magazine (4 January 1963) attributed variant: I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish.

It is a part of the poet's work to show each man what he sees but does not know he sees.

As quoted in The Reader's Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary Special Supplement (1966), p. 2047

The trouble with most Englishwomen is that they will dress as if they had been a mouse in a previous incarnation... they do not want to attract attention.

As quoted in Edith Sitwell: Fire of the Mind : an Anthology (1976) by Elizabeth Salter, p. 176

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.

As quoted in Reader's Digest Vol. 111, No. 666, (October 1977)

 
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