Stephen Spender, along with his friends W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and C. Day Lewis, rose to prominence in the 1930s, writing powerfully of the fear they felt as Europe lurched towards war. Despite living until 1995, Spender is still associated by many with the 1930s, the decade when he produced much of his best poetry. He maintains a reputation as one of Britain's greatest 20th-century poets, whether writing about the Spanish Civil War (The Room Above the Square), social conditions (An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum), or life passages (The Funeral).
