Peter John Dale (21 August 1938 – 25 June 2024)[1] was a British poet and translator particularly noted for his skilful but unobtrusive use of poetic form.
[5] Then in 1997 Hamilton proposed the Between the Lines series of in-depth interviews over dinner with Dale and Philip Hoy.
[6] Over the next three years Dale was to interview Michael Hamburger, Anthony Thwaite and Richard Wilbur for this series.
Dale is particularly noted for his skilful use of poetic form, as for example in the sustained use of terza rima in his translation of Dante.
The tension in the poetry is generated by attempts to communicate and frustration that such efforts are never wholly successful, as implied by the title of his sonnet sequence One Another.
He takes this demonstration of the clash between dialogue and duologue further in his later sequence Local Habitation in which three points of view are counterpointed through a narrative of changing relationships and moods.