Peter Levi's position in contemporary British poetry is a strikingly individual one. Catholic priest, classical scholar, archaeologist, thriller writer, translator, critic, lyric poet, surrealist, satirist: the roles he has assumed have been various. Distancing himself from the literary fashions of his period--some of the major influences on his poetry, Wallace Stevens and George Seferis, have come from outside Britain--he has remained close to the landscape of his country. Because he writes, in the words of the introduction to his Collected Poems 1955-1975 (1976), "to be believed, not to be applauded," he has managed to retain considerable integrity in a period when such a quality is rare.

Peter Chad Tigar Levi was born in the outer London suburb of Ruislip and educated by Christian Brothers at Prior Park College, Bath, and by Jesuits at Beaumont College, Berkshire. On leaving Beaumont in 1948, Levi joined the Society of Jesus and remained a...