J. H. Prynne

Jeremy Halvard Prynne (24 June 1936 – 22 April 2026) was a British poet closely associated with the British Poetry Revival.

Life and career Prynne was born in Bromley, grew up in Kent, and was educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford, and Jesus College, Cambridge. Initially at Gonville and Caius College as a research fellow in English, he was an official Fellow there from 1963, and Director of Studies in English; and became a Life Fellow.

Works

Prynne's early influences include Donald Davie (as a teacher) He was one of the key figures in the Cambridge group among the British Poetry Revival poets and a major contributor to The English Intelligencer. His longer works include a monograph on Ferdinand de Saussure, Stars, Tigers and the Shape of Words, and self-published erudite book-length commentaries on individual poems by Shakespeare (Sonnets 94 and 15), George Herbert ("Love III") and Wordsworth ("The Solitary Reaper"). His longstanding and passionate interest in China (he was a close friend and colleague of Joseph Needham) is reflected in an essay on New Songs from a Jade Terrace, an anthology of early Chinese love poetry, which was included in Penguin's second edition of that book (1982). His collected poetry includes a poem composed in classical Chinese under the name Pu Ling-en (蒲龄恩), reproduced in his own calligraphy. In 2016, a lengthy interview with Prynne about his poetic practice appeared in The Paris Review.