He enlisted in the
Royal Navy in 1940 and served as an ordinary seaman during the Second World War, firstly aboard the destroyer
HMS Eclipse in the Atlantic, at shore bases in Gibraltar and northwest England. Later he served in the Pacific on the aircraft carrier
HMS Glory, after promotion to petty officer. Causley later wrote about his wartime experiences (and their longer-term impact on him) in his poetry, and also in a book of short stories,
Hands to Dance and Skylark. His first collection of poems,
Farewell, Aggie Weston (1951) contained the 'Song of the Dying Gunner A.A.1':
Farewell, Aggie Weston, the Barracks at Guz, Hang my tiddley suit on the door ''I'm sewn up neat in a canvas sheet'' ''And I shan't be home no more.'' The collection ''Survivor's Leave
followed in 1953, and from then until his death Causley published frequently, in magazines, in his own volumes and shared ones, in anthologies and then in several editions of his Collected Poems''. After demobilisation in 1946, he took advantage of a government scheme to train as a teacher at Peterborough. He then worked full-time as a teacher at his old school for over 35 years, teaching for his very final year at St. Catherine's CofE Primary elsewhere in the town, where the National School had been relocated. He twice spent time in
Perth as a visiting Fellow at the
University of Western Australia, and also worked at the
Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. Causley travelled still more widely and frequently, however, after taking early retirement in 1976 to pursue a full-time career in writing. He was much in demand at poetry readings in the United Kingdom and worldwide—the latter travels were sometimes as part of
Arts Council and
British Council initiatives. He also made many television and radio appearances over the post-war period, particularly for the BBC in the West Country, and as the presenter for many years of the BBC Radio 4 series
Poetry Please. An intensely private person, he was nevertheless approachable and friendly. He corresponded with and was well-acquainted with such writers as
Siegfried Sassoon,
A. L. Rowse,
Susan Hill,
Jack Clemo and
Ted Hughes (his closest friend)—and a host of other figures from the literary, publishing and wider cultural spheres around the world, as well the southwest region. In addition to Causley's poetry dealing with issues of faith, folklore, memory, his wartime experience and its later impact, landscape, travel, friends and family, his poems for children were and remain very popular. He used to say that he could have lived comfortably on the fees paid for the reproduction of 'Timothy Winters':
Timothy Winters comes to school With eyes as wide as a football pool, Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters: A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters. —first verse
So come one angel, come on ten: Timothy Winters says "Amen Amen amen amen amen." Timothy Winters, Lord. Amen. —last verse In 1952 Causley was made a bard of
Gorsedh Kernow adopting the bardic name Morvardh (Sea poet). In 1958 Causley was made a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature, and he was made a
CBE in 1986. When he was 83 years old he was made a Companion of Literature by the
Royal Society of Literature: he greeted this award with the words, "My goodness, what an encouragement!" Other awards include the
Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1967 and a
Cholmondeley Award in 1971. In 1973/74 he was visiting fellow in poetry at the
University of Exeter, from which institution he received an honorary doctorate on 7 July 1977. He was presented with the
Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 2000. Between 1962 and 1966 he was a member of the Poetry Panel of the
Arts Council of Great Britain. He was twice awarded a travelling scholarship by the
Society of Authors. There was a campaign to have him appointed
Poet Laureate on the death of Sir
John Betjeman, but in the end, that role was given to Ted Hughes. Causley himself was not very keen on the idea. However, to the people of his home town, he became "the greatest poet laureate we never had". He was interviewed by
Roy Plomley on
Desert Island Discs on 1 December 1979: his music choices included five classical selections and three others, while his chosen book was ''
Boswell's Life of Johnson''. In 1982, on his 65th birthday, a book of poems was published in his honour that included contributions from
Ted Hughes,
Seamus Heaney,
Philip Larkin and twenty-three other poets, testifying to the respect and indeed love that the British poetry community had for him. This was followed by a fuller and more wide-ranging tribute (including some unpublished reflective essays, and reproductions of several drafts of his poem 'Immunity' from his archive at Exeter University), published in 1987 and entitled
Causley at 70. Causley's popularity amongst general readers and listeners, particularly among the
Cornish, remains high, and also appears to be expanding. A Causley piece that has gained attention is "Eden Rock", a reflection on childhood, memory, family and mortality. Its opening lines are:
They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock: My father, twenty-five, in the same suit Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack Still two years old and trembling at his feet. Poet Laureate Sir
Andrew Motion has said that if he could write a line as perfect as the one which closes this poem, he would go to his grave a happy man. The full text of "Eden Rock" accompanies a recording on the Poetry Archive website of Causley himself reading it (amongst several other poems) aloud, shortly before his death in 2003. ==Reception==