I had to be intellectually satisfied as well as emotionally because at that time of life one doesn't just fall into it in adolescent emotion, and I was satisfied at every point that it was the one way and the hard way to do things.

She was the first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955 and was appointed a CBE in 1979 to honour her many contributions to English literature. In 1974 Ruth Pitter was named a "Companion of Literature" the highest honour given by the Royal Society of Literature.