British Poetry Revival 429477 220772829 2008-06-21T14:34:39Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other '''''The British Poetry Revival''''' is the general name given to a loose poetic movement in [[United Kingdom|Britain]] that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The Revival was a [[modernist poetry|modernist]]-inspired reaction to the [[Movement (literature)|Movement]]'s more conservative approach to British poetry. ==Beginnings== If the Movement poets looked to [[Thomas Hardy]] as a poetic model, the poets associated with the British Poetry Revival were more likely to look to modernist models, such as the American poets [[Ezra Pound]] and [[William Carlos Williams]] and British figures such as [[David Jones (poet)|David Jones]], [[Basil Bunting]] and [[Hugh MacDiarmid]]. Although these major British poets had effectively been written out of official histories of 20th century British poetry, by the beginning of the 1960s a number of younger poets were starting to explore poetic possibilities that the older writers had opened up. These poets included [[Roy Fisher]], [[Gael Turnbull]], [[Ian Hamilton Finlay]], [[Bob Cobbing]], [[Jeff Nuttall]], [[Tom Raworth]], [[Michael Horovitz]], [[Eric Mottram]], [[Peter Finch (poet)|Peter Finch]], [[Edwin Morgan]], [[Jim Burns (poet)|Jim Burns]], [[Elaine Feinstein]], [[Lee Harwood]] and [[Christopher Logue]]. Many of these poets joined [[Allen Ginsberg]] and an audience of 7,000 people at the [[Albert Hall Poetry Incarnation]] on [[June 11]], [[1965]] to create what was, effectively, the first British [[happening]]. These poets provided a wide range of modes and models of how modernism could be integrated into British poetry. Fisher, also a professional jazz pianist, applied the lessons of [[William Carlos Williams]]' ''[[Paterson (poem)|Paterson]]'' to his native [[Birmingham]] in his long poem ''City''. Turnbull, who spent some time in the U. S., was also influenced by Williams. His fellow [[Scottish literature|Scots]] Morgan and Finlay both worked with [[found poetry|found]], [[sound poetry|sound]] and [[visual poetry]]. Mottram, Nuttall, Horovitz and Burns were all close to the [[Beat generation]] writers. Mottram and Raworth were also influenced by the [[Black Mountain poets]] while Raworth and Harwood shared an interest in the poets of the [[New York School]]. A number of publishing outlets for this new experimental poetry also began to spring up, including Turnbull's Migrant Press, Raworth's Matrix Press and Goliard Press, Horovitz's ''New Departures'', Stuart Montgomery's [[Fulcrum Press]], [[Tim Longville]]'s ''[[Grosseteste Review]]'', Galloping Dog Press and its ''[[Poetry Information]]'' magazine, Pig Press, [[Andrew Crozier]] and [[Peter Riley]]'s ''[[The English Intelligencer]]'', Crozier's Ferry Press, and Cobbing's [[Writers Forum]]. In addition to the poets of the revival, many of these presses and magazines also published ''avant-garde'' American and European poetry. The first anthology to present a wide-ranging selection of the new movement was Horovitz's ''[[Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain]]'' (1969). ==London== Thanks in no small part to [[Bob Cobbing's]] [[Writers Forum]] and its associated writers' workshop, [[London]] was a hub for many young poets, including [[Bill Griffiths]], [[Allen Fisher]], [[Iain Sinclair]], Gilbert Adair, Laurence Upton, [[Peter Finch (poet)|Peter Finch]], [[Ulli Freer]], Gavin Selerie, Frances Presley, [[Elaine Randell]], Robert Shepherd, Adrian Clarke, Clive Fencott, [[Maggie O'Sullivan]] and [[Denise Riley]]. Griffiths writes a poetry of dazzling surface and deep political commitment that incorporates such matter as his professional knowledge of [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] and his years as a [[Hells Angel]]. Both Sinclair and Fisher share a taste for [[William Blake]] and an interest in exploring the meaning of place, particularly London, which can be seen in Sinclair's ''Suicide Bridge'' and ''Lud Heat'' and Fisher's ''Place'' sequence of books. O'Sullivan explores a view of the poet as shaman in her work, while Randell and Riley were among the first British [[list of women poets|women poets]] to combine [[feminist]] concerns with experimental poetic practice. For more on Griffiths's poetry, see William Rowe (ed), Bill Griffiths (Salt, 2007). Griffiths started Pirate Press to publish work by himself and others. Allen Fisher set up Spanner for similar reasons, and Sinclair's early books were published by his own Albion Village Press, which also published work by Chris Torrance a Brian Catling. Book production has always been an important part of Revival practice. Many of these writers also participated enthusiastically in performance poetry events, both individually or in groups like Cobbing's Bird Yak and Konkrete Canticle. Eric Mottram was a central figure on the London scene, both for his personal and professional knowledge of the [[Beat generation]] writers and the US poets linked with the New American Poetry more generally, and his abilities as a promoter and poet. In large part through Mottram's presence there, King's College London was another important site for the British Poetry Revival. Poets who attended there (a number of them also students taught by Mottram) included Gilbert Adair, Peter Barry, [[Sean Bonney]], Hannah Bramness, Clive Bush, [[Ken Edwards]], Bill Griffiths, Robert Hampson, [[Jeff Hilson]] and Will Rowe. ==[[Northumbria]] and Northern England== By the early 1950s, Basil Bunting had returned to live in [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] and, in 1966, Fulcrum Press published ''[[Briggflatts]]'', which is widely considered to be his masterpiece. A number of younger poets began to gather around Bunting. In 1963, [[Connie Pickard|Connie]] and [[Tom Pickard]] started a reading series and bookshop in the [[Morden Tower Book Room]]. The first reading was by Bunting, and Ginsberg, [[Robert Creeley]], [[Lawrence Ferlinghetti]] and [[Gregory Corso]] all read there. They were soon joined by [[Richard Caddel]], brought up in [[Kent]] but an honorary Northumbrian, [[Barry MacSweeney]] and [[Colin Simms]]. Through Bunting, these younger writers became familiar with the work of the [[Objectivist poets]]. Specifically, [[Louis Zukofsky]] and [[Lorine Niedecker]] were to become important models for Caddel and Simms in their writing about the Northumbrian environment. Pickard and MacSweeney shared Bunting's interest in reviving Northumbrian vowel patterns and verbal music in poetry and all of these poets were influenced by the older poet's insistence on poetry as sounded speech rather than purely written text. At [[Easter]], 1967 MacSweeney organised the [[Sparty Lea]] Poetry Festival. This was a ten-day session of reading, writing and discussion (and no little drinking). The participants, including the Pickards, MacSweeney, Andrew Crozier, [[John James (poet)|John James]], [[John Temple]], [[Pete Armstrong]], [[Tim Longville]], Peter Riley, [[John Hall (poet)|John Hall]], [[J. H. Prynne]] and [[Nick Waite]], stayed in a group of four cottages in the village of Sparty Lea. This was to be a pivotal event in the British Poetry Revival, bringing together poets who were separated geographically and in terms of poetic influences and encouraging them to support and publish each other's work. Although published by Writers Forum and Pirate Press, [[Geraldine Monk]] is very much a poet of the North of England. Like [[Maggie O'Sullivan]], she writes for performance as much as for the page and there is an undercurrent of feminist concerns in her work. Other poets associated with the North of England included Paul Buck, Glenda George, and John Seed. Paul Buck and Glenda George for many years edited Curtains, a magazine instrumental in disseminating contemporary French poetry and philosophical/theoretical writing. John Seed had picked up on Objectivism while still in the North-East. ==[[Cambridge]]== The Cambridge poets were a group centred around [[J. H. Prynne]] and included Andrew Crozier, [[John James (poet)|John James]], [[Douglas Oliver]], [[Veronica Forrest-Thomson]], Peter Riley, Tim Longville and [[John Riley (poet)|John Riley]]. Prynne was influenced by [[Charles Olson]] and Crozier was partly responsible for [[Carl Rakosi]]'s return to poetry in the 1960s. The New York school were also an important influence for many of the Cambridge poets - most obviously in the work of John James. The ''Grosseteste Review'', which published these poets, was originally thought of as a kind of magazine of British Objectivism. The Cambridge poets in general wrote in a cooler, more measured style than many of their London or Northumbrian peers (although Barry MacSweeney, for example, felt an affinity with them) and many taught at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] or at Anglia Polytechnic. There was also less emphasis on performance than there was among the London poets. ==[[Wales]] and [[Scotland]]== In the 60s and early 70s Peter Finch, an associate of Bob Cobbing, ran the No Walls Poetry readings and the ground breaking inclusive magazine, ''second aeon''. He began Oriel Books in [[Cardiff]] in 1974 and the shop served as a focal point for young [[Welsh literature|Welsh]] poets. However, some of the more experimental poets in Wales were not of Welsh origins. Two of the most important expatriate poets operating in Wales were [[John Freeman]] and [[Chris Torrance]]. Freeman is another British poet influenced by the Objectivists, and he has written on both [[George Oppen]] and Niedecker. Torrance has expressed his debt to David Jones. His ongoing ''Magic Door'' sequence is widely regarded as one of the major long poems to come out of the Revival. In the 90s, outside of the literary establishment comprised of various Arts Council funded poets, a 'new wave' of Welsh poetry emerged, led by Valleys born writer and poet, [[John Evans (writer)|John Evans]]. Evans has been described as "one of the most committed writers in Wales today", and his work has been described as "impossible to categorise", and "cutting edge",[http://www.johnevans.org.uk]. He remains a leading figure in contemporary Welsh writing. In Scotland, Edwin Morgan, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Tom Leonard emerged as key individual poets during this time, each interested in, among other forms, sound and visual poetry. The viability of a wider, deeper experimental infrastructure in poetry was helped by the gallery, performance space and bookshop at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow (later renamed the Centre for Contemporary Arts). Magazines such as ''Scottish International'' and Duncan Glen's magazine ''Akros'' maintained links with the modernist legacy of the inter-war and post-war years while publishing contemporary poets; often, however, by mixing the avant-garde with aesthetically conservative texts. =="A treacherous assault on British poetry"== In 1971, a large number of the poets associated with the British Poetry Revival joined the dormant, if not moribund [[Poetry Society]] and in the elections became the Poetry Society's new council. The Society had been traditionally hostile to modernist poetry, but under the new council this position was reversed. Eric Mottram was made editor of the society's magazine ''Poetry Review''. Over the next six years, he edited twenty issues that featured most, if not all, of the key Revival poets and carried reviews of books and magazines from the wide range of small presses that had sprung up to publish them. Nuttall and MacSweeney both served as chairperson of the society during this period and Bob Cobbing used the photocopying facilities in the basement of the society's building to produce Writers Forum books. Around this time, Cobbing, Finch and others established the [[Association of Little Presses]] (ALP) to promote and support small press publishers and organise book fares at which they could sell their productions. In the late 1970s, in response to the number of foreign poets being featured in ''Poetry Review'', Mottram was removed as editor of the magazine; his editorial practices being described as "a treacherous assault on British poetry". At the same time, the Arts Council set up an inquiry that overturned the result of the Society's elections that had once more brought in a council dominated by those sympathetic to the Poetry Revival.<ref>For a detailed account of these events, see Peter Barry, The Battle of Earl's Court (Manchester University Press, 2007).</ref> ==The 1980s and after== A number of younger poets, many of whom who first found an outlet in ''Poetry Review'' under Mottram, began to emerge around the end of the 1970s. In London, Bill Griffiths, Ulli Freer, cris cheek, [[Lawrence Upton]], Robert Hampson [[Robert Sheppard]], and [[Ken Edwards]] were among those who were to the fore. These, and others, met regularly at Gilbert Adair's Subvoicive reading series. Edwards ran ''Reality Studios'', a magazine that grew out of Alembic, the magazine he had co-edited through the 1970s. Through Reality Studios, he helped introduce the [[Language poets|L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets]] to a British readership. He also ran Reality Street editions with Cambridge-based Mulford, which continues to be a major publisher of contemporary poetry. The London-based [[Angel Exhaust]] magazine brought many of the younger poets together - in particular, Adrian Clarke, Robert Shepherd and Andrew Duncan. In the Midlands, Tony Baker's ''Figs'' magazine focused more on the Objectivist and Bunting-inspired poetry of the Northumbrian school while introducing a number of new poets. In 1988 an anthology called ''[[The New British Poetry]]'' was published. It featured a section on the Revival poets edited by Mottram and another on the younger poets edited by Edwards. In 1987, Crozier and Longville published their anthology ''A Various Art'', which focused mainly on the Cambridge poets, and Iain Sinclair edited yet another anthology of Revival-related work ''[[Conductors of Chaos]]'' (1996). For an account of some of the work produced by these poets, see Robert Hampson and Peter Barry (eds.), The New British poetries: The Scope of the possible (Manchester University Press, 1993). In 1994 [[W. N. Herbert]] and [[Richard Price]] co-edited the anthology of Scottish [[Informationist poetry]] ''Contraflow on the SuperHighway'' (Gairfish and Southfields Press). The anthology ''The New British Poetry'' featured another aspect of the Revival; the recovery of neglected British modernists of the generation after Bunting. Poets like [[David Gascoyne]], [[W. S. Graham]] and [[Nicholas Moore]] have been reappraised and returned to their rightful place in the history of 20th century British poetry. Another interesting development was the establishment of the British and Irish poetry discussion list by Richard Caddel. This continues to provide a forum for discussion and the exchange of news on experimental British poetry. Caddel, together with [[Peter Quartermain]] edited the most recent anthology to cover the field, ''[[Other: British and Irish Poetry since 1970]]'' (1999). Into the 1990s and beyond poets such as [[Sean Bonney]], Jeff Hilson, and Piers Hugill have surfaced after direct involvement in the Cobbing-led [[Writers Forum]] workshop, while those associated with the Barque Press (most obviously Andrea Brady and Keston Sutherland), and more recently [[Bad Press]] (in particular, [[Marianne Morris]] and [[Jow Lindsay]]), have made a similarly important impact via the Cambridge scene. From Scotland, [[Peter Manson]], who had co-edited the magazine ''Object Permanence'' in the mid-1990s, Drew Milne, editor of ''Parataxis'', David Kinloch and Richard Price (previously editors of ''Verse'' and ''Southfields'') also emerged more fully as poets in their own right. New writings have arisen from the involvement of cris cheek and Alaric Sumner, under the direction of [[Caroline Bergvall]] and John Hall through the Performance Writing programme at [[Dartington College of Arts]] including Kirsten Lavers and Andy Smith; and [[Keith Jebb]] at University of Bedfordshire's Creative Writing programme, including Alyson Torns, Kevin Doran, Allison Boast. Redell Olsen's Poetic Practice programme at Royal Holloway, University of London (which includes [[Frances Kruk]], [[Sophie Robinson]], John Sparrow and Stephen Willey) continue to offer a fresh and vigorous challenge to the confessional mainstream. ==Footnotes== <references/> ==External links== *[http://www.netkonect.net/~athelstan/links.html List of related links] *[http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/coll_mss/englishint.html#hist The English Intelligencer Archive] *[http://www.mordentower.org/ The Morden Tower] *[http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/british-irish-poets.html Archives of the British and Irish poetry discussion list] *[http://www.jeff-nuttall.co.uk The Life and Works of Jeff Nuttall] *[http://www.johnevans.org.uk John Evans Official Website] * [http://www.fucine.com/network/fucinemute/core/print.php?url=archivio/fm87/hugill.htm&id=1374 Piers Hugill on British Poetry since 1977] {{Schools of poetry}} [[Category:Literary movements]] [[Category:British poetry]] [[Category:British literary movements]] [[Category:British Poetry Revival]]