cs. Although he is not held high regards, in literary standards as a poet, the works he produced were very visual to his experiences. Spender’s desire to express himself through poetry, is the strongest example of his ability to personalize his writings based upon his personal history. Spender’s views on politics have changed through out the years. He has had his own personal and moral struggles with the sides that he has supported. Stephen Spender spent much of his times writing and documenting his thoughts in journals on a daily basis. The most familiar journals were compiled into a text titled, The Thirties and After. In this text, Spender admits that his political views changed over time, with direct relationship to what he has experienced. He was sensitive, to allow these changes to be very visual when reading these essays, rather than tampering them to contain his view of today. Although he may not always be proud of his opinions during certain decades, he believes his thought process needed to be documented to understand the totality of his political ideals. According to Sternlicht, Stephen Spender was “probably a full committed communist for about five weeks. He was proclaimed to be a tool of Stalin and an agent of the CIA.” Kennedy 4(Sternlicht, P.115) His liberal views in politics were voiced in his essay, I Joined the Communist Party, published in the Daily Worker, which documents his desire to express his belief in portraying “an attitude of people who really care for progress rather than reaction, aggression, government in the interests of the whole people, rather than fascism” (Spender, P. 80). These two quotes from Sanford Sternlicht and Stephen Spender, himself, demonstrates the changes in Spender’s political views and opinions. Later in his literary works Spender discusses his views in a more mild form of liberal context. According to Sanfo...
