Several affectionate tributes have been paid to Cornish poet Charles Causley on the occasion of his recent death. There's a detailed biographical and critical essay by Dana Gioia on the Net, and on other sites samples of his poetry.
A primary schoolteacher for thirty years, he wrote for children as well as adults - mostly in traditional forms, especially the ballad. Much of his best work e.g. 'Timothy Winter' combines humour, shrewd observation and compassion. Of his free verse pieces, Ten Types of Hospital Visitor is among the most hilarious.

He was a close friend of Ted Hughes and the novelist/dramatist Susan Hill, whose poignant memoir can be read at books.guardian.co.uk

She quotes this short elegy for a sailor and personal acquaintance of Causley's who died in WW2.

CONVOY

Draw the blanket of ocean
Over his frozen face.
He lies, his eyes quarried by glittering fish,
Staring through the green freezing sea-glass
At the Northern Lights,

He is now a child in the land of Christmas:
Watching, amazed, the white tumbling bears
And the diving seal.
The iron wind clangs round the ice-caps,
The five-point Dog-star
Burns over the silent sea,

And the three ships
Come sailing in.

Margaret Moore