Home icon. The Works of Robert Graves. Exhibition: 1 April to 17 June 2011.

Cabinet 4: Influences


Skelton: The Life and Times of an Early Tudor Poet.

H. L. R. Edwards, Skelton: The Life and Times of an Early Tudor Poet. London: Jonathan Cape, 1949.

Norfolk-born John Skelton (c. 1460 – 21 June 1529) was one of Graves’s favourite poets. He once wrote

‘Skelton has had a stronger influence on my work than any other poet alive or dead: particularly I have admired in him the mixture of scholarship and extravaganza, his honest outspokenness and unconventionality in life and writing, his humour, his poetic craftsmanship, and, in spite of appearance, his deep religious sense.’

In his preface to his work, H. L. R. Edwards thanked Graves for his enthusiasm towards this early Tudor poet.