W. H. Davies (William Henry Davies, 1871–1940) was a Welsh poet and writer best known for his simple, lyrical poems about nature, poverty, wandering, and the value of unhurried life. He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, and spent much of his youth in hardship. At twenty-two he sailed to America, where he travelled widely as a tramp and labourer across the United States and Canada. In Canada, Davies lost part of his right leg after falling from a freight train, an event that ended his years of wandering. He returned to Britain and eventually became a successful writer. His autobiographical book The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, published in 1908, brought him recognition. His best-known poem, “Leisure,” begins, “What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare.” Davies’s poetry is admired for its clarity, musicality, and direct feeling. Although he lived among leading literary figures of his time, including George Bernard Shaw, his work retained the perspective of someone deeply familiar with ordinary hardship and the natural world. He died in 1940 in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire.
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