Life
1903-1987 [Charles Ewart Milne]; b. 25 May, Dublin, ed. in Ashford, and
at Christ Church Cathedral Grammar School; ran away to sea 1920-35; m.
Kathleen Bradner in London on his return; Spanish Medical Aid, 1936-38;
Spanish Civil War, following his friend Charles Donnelly [but see infra];
worked in London for Edward Sheehy’s Ireland Today, and for
Spanish Medical Aid; followed Charles Donnelly to Madrid, 1937; farm worker
in Suffolk, England, 1946-62; divorced following death of first-born child;
returned to Dublin in the late forties; pub. poems in Comment;
m. Thelma Dobson, 1948, widowed 1964; 14 poetry collections in a Yeatsian
vein incl. Listen Mangan (1941); Boding Day (1947); Elegy
for a Lost Submarine (1951); Galion (1953), mock-epic; Life
Arboreal: Poems (1953), from Peter Russell’s Pound Press; Once
More to Tourney (1958); A Garland for the Green (1962), nationalist
in tone; Time Stopped, A Poem Sequence with Prose Intermissions
(1967); Drift of Pinions (1976), Cantata Under Orion, (1977)
[var. 1976], in which the poet learns of his wife’s adultery; The
Folded Leaf (1983); issued Drums Without End (1985), short
stories chiefly about the Spanish Civil War; appears in English and American
anthologies [but omitted from FDA]; member Society of Authors and British
Interplanetary Society; d. Bedford, 14 Jan.; two sons living. DIW DIL/2
DIB OCIL
Works
Poetry, Forty North Forty West (Dublin: Gayfield 1938);
Letter from Ireland: Verses (Dublin: Gayfield Press 1940), ix,
79pp.; Listen Mangan: Poems (Dublin: Sign of Three Candles 1941),
102pp.; Jubilo: Poems (London: F. Muller Ltd. 1944), vi, 47, [1]pp.;;
Boding Day (London: F. Muller Ltd. 1947), 22p.; Elegy for a
Lost Submarine (Burnham-on-Couch: Plow Poems 1951), [8]pp.; Diamond
Cut Diamond: Selected Poems (London: Bodley Head 1953), 64pp.;
Galion: A Poem (Dublin: Dolmen 1953); Life Arboreal: Poems
(Tunbridge Wells: Pound Press 1953), 94, [2]pp.; Once More to Tourney:
A Book of Ballads and Light Verse, Serious, Gay and Grisly, intro.
by J. M. Cohen (London: Linden Press [1958]), 96pp.; A Garland for
the Green: Poems (London: Hutchinson 1962), 95pp.; Time Stopped:
A Poem Sequence with Prose Intermissions (London: Plow Poems 1967),
165pp.; Cantata Under Orion (Isle of Skye: Aquila Poetry 1976),
54pp.; Drift of Pinions (Isle of Skye: Aquila & Wayzgoose Press
1976), [16]pp.; Deus Est Qui Regit Omnia [St. Bueno's Hand Printed
Ltd. Edns. No. 9] (Mornington: J. F. & B. Deane 1980), [16]pp.; Spring
Offering (Isle of Skye: Aquila 1981); The Folded Leaf: Poems 1970-1980
(Isle of Skye: Aquila Poetry 1983).
Short Fiction, Drums Without End (Portree [Isle of Skye]: Aquila 1985), 101pp.
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Criticism
Hugh D. Ford, A Poet's War: British Poets in the Spanish Civil War
(Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia 1965).
J.C.R. Green, ed., Ewart Milne: For His 80th Birthday: A Festchrift [Prospice 14] (Isle of Skye: Aquila Press 1983), 82pp.
Frank Kernowski, The Outsiders (Fort Worth: Texas Christian UP 1975).
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Notes
Donagh MacDonagh, ed. and intro., Poems from Ireland, with
a preface by R. M. Smylie (Dublin The Irish Times 1944), describes
him as a ‘teacher and sailor [who] worked with Medical Aid during
the Spanish Civil War [and] has published three books of verse [...] Is
at present in England.’
John Montague, ed. Faber Book of Irish Verse (London: Faber 1974), "Vanessa Vanessa," and "The Martyred Earth" [‘The land, the land is tired, / A thin honey melts for all the fanning of the bees, / And the islands are finished.’]
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), cites Milne's own biographical summary [6 lines] and adds bio-details: rift with family; m. ‘Irish girl’ [acc. Kersnowski]; antipathy to Gaelic League [Gaelicism] prevents him supporting de Valera; Spanish Medical Aid; followed Donnelly to Madrid to find Donnelly had by then been killed; Sheehy’s Ireland Today, 1941; ‘moving again to Dublin’; worked on a farm in wartime; mock epic Galion (1953), published by Dolmen; m. Thelma Dobson, 1948 (d.1964); Time Stopped (1967), a self-examination which expresses his love and accepts his Anglo-Irish background; relationship to Ireland changed with the circumstances of his life. Hogan reprints Milne’s wry autobiographical notice.
Nancy Cunard, ed., Poèmes à la France 1934-1944 (Paris: Pierre Seghers 1947), prints poem with others by Lord Dunsany, Hugh MacDiarmid, Robert Greacen.
COPAC lists Boding day: poems (1947); Cantata under Orion (1976); Deus est qui regit omnia: a poem (1980); Diamond cut diamond: selected poems (1950); Drift of pinions (1976); Drums without end: short stories mainly about the Spanish Civil War (1986); Elegy for a lost submarine (1951); The folded leaf: poems (1970-(1980 (1983); Forty north, fifty west (1938); Galion: a poem with a prologue and an epilogue (1953); A garland for the green (1962); Jubilo: poems (1944); Letter from Ireland (1940); Life arboreal (1953); Listen Mangan: poems (1941); Once more to tourney: a book of ballads and light verse, serious, gay, and grisly (1958); Ewart Milne: for his 80th birthday: a Festschrift / edited by J.C.R. Green. (1983).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)