"Agamemnon's Tomb" is a poem by Sacheverell Sitwell. It was first published in 1933, the fifth of twenty poems in Canons of Giant Art: Twenty Torsos in Heroic Landscapes.[1][2][3]

It was included in Collected Poems of Sacheverell Sitwell (1936), published by Duckworth, and was praised as a "high-water mark" of the volume for "its moving force and its evocative power."[4] The same year, it was also included in The Oxford Book of Modern Verse, 1892-1935, edited by W. B. Yeats.[5] In 1972, a standalone chapbook of the poem was printed as a limited edition of 265 copies.[6]

Sitwell's sister, Edith Sitwell, a literary critic known for her effusive praise of her brother's poetry, calls "Agamemnon's tomb" "one of the greatest poems written in the English language for over a century."[7] The author Samuel Hynes singles out "Agamemnon's Tomb" as the only poem by Sitwell which seems to be written "out of his deepest self," describing it as "a powerful meditation on death."[8]

References

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  1. ^ Cevasco, G. A. (1987). "Chapter 7: Wellsprings of Creativity". The Sitwells : Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell. New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8057-4807-9. OCLC 587084656.
  2. ^ Martin Gilkes (1938-01-01). A key to modern English poetry. Blackie.
  3. ^ Saturday Review 1949-03-19: Vol 32 Iss 12. Omni Publications International. 1949-03-19.
  4. ^ Powell, Charles (1937-01-19). "RECENT VERSE". The Manchester Guardian. p. 7. ProQuest 484167854. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  5. ^ Matthiessen, F. O. (1936). "W.B. Yeats and Others". The Southern Review. p. 826. ProQuest 1291557152. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  6. ^ "Agamemnon's Tomb [Numbered edition] by Sacheverell Sitwell". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  7. ^ Pittock, Murray G. H. (1990). "Review of The Sitwells: Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell". The Yearbook of English Studies. 20: 337–338. doi:10.2307/3507620. ISSN 0306-2473. JSTOR 3507620.
  8. ^ Hynes, Samuel (1994-02-14). "Family values - Splendours and Miseries: A Life of Sachever". The New Republic. p. 38. ProQuest 212822378. Retrieved 2022-03-25.