David Elliott (poet)

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David ("Smoky") Elliott (1923–1999) was a Newfoundland and Labrador poet.

Born in Garnish, Newfoundland, Elliott worked as a telegraph operator as a young man. He served in World War II, and entered Memorial University of Newfoundland at the age of 25, where he studied English and won numerous awards for scholarship.

After a varied career, Elliott became an English professor at the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campus of Memorial University, where he taught from 1975 to 1989.

Although his poetry appeared in several anthologies, it was not until 1988 that a volume of Elliott's own work was published, The Edge of Beulah. Perhaps his best-known poem is Didymus on Saturday, in which he imagines St. Thomas's reflections the day after the Crucifixion.