“The Mersey Sound – Adrian Henri, Roger McGough & Brian Patten”
by Jesús Milla Cabrera
Table of contents
1. Introduction - p. 3 -
2. Setting the scene (Suburban poetry) - p. 3 -
2.1. Liverpool: pop poetry - p. 3 -
3. Adrian Henri - p. 4 -
3.1. Biographical notes - p. 4 -
3.2. Main works - p. 5 -
3.3. Style and influences - p. 6 -
3.4. “Love is...” - p. 7 -
4. Roger McGough - p. 10 -
4.1. Biographical notes and main works - p. 10 -
4.2. “Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death” - p. 11 -
5. Brian Patten - p. 14 -
5.1. Biographical notes and main works - p. 14 -
5.2. “Little Johnny’s Confession” - p. 15 -
6. Personal conclusion - p. 17 -
7. Bibliography - p. 18 - 1. Introduction
When I heard about an anthology written by Liverpool poets, I immediately decided to write this paper about it. I have been in love with the pop music and The Beatles since I was a young teenager. That is the reason why I thought that reading the poetry of the three authors that constitute the anthology The Mersey Sound (Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten) would be accessible and a pleasure for me.
2.
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Setting the scene (Suburban poetry)
Traditionally, in the United Kingdom, London has been seen as the centre of cultural activities, place of meeting and home of writers. New literary movements have their origin in London. It is the base of the editorial world and a place for new writers to be known. During the sixties, following the process of democratization and cultural dissemination, many poets emerge from several cities of England. They are identified with their respective home towns (where they develop their career) breaking the centralist tradition of London. Among those suburban English cities, we can highlight Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. (Medina, 2007:
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
69. Print. Strand, Mark, and Eavan Boland. The Making of a Poem: a Norton Anthology of Poetic
Modernism was the word of the era because it was the opposite of the last. People pined for new and exciting ways to make up for time lost to the war. This feeling of looking ahead through the ambiguity of the time permeated through all tiers of society from the working class to the elites. In Judith Walkowitz’s “A Jewish Night Out,” we find a dance hall catering to Jewish youth. One can rent a dance partner and learn how to dance well. It was suddenly important to be able to charm the opposite sex in talent, attitude, and appearance because sex wasn’t just for procreation anymore. Deborah Cohen’s Household Gods, she gives a look into architecture and material things. There’s a clear clash between the older and younger generations, and the younger ones enjoy modernism. “Advocates of the modern insisted that the new era required a new style. They deplored the vogue for reproductions, which, in the psychological language of the day, they analysed as evidence of an ‘inferiority complex’.” As well, stream of consciousness writing emerges from the depths of collegiate, middle class bohemia. The Bloomsburry Group were named after the London neighborhood they inhabited and were an artist collective, living life according to art and the new fragmentation of life after war. Virginia Woolf’s writing reflects the general feeling of the interwar period: confusing, ambiguous, hopeful, and moral-less. The Bohemians took the disassociation of the era and put it into new and modern art. All of these cultural ideas and forms of recreation were a result of the Great War because there was a generation of young people who were lost and needed a future meaningful to them, so they created
Merwin's magisterial control of lyric syntax and narrative order give the reader no difficulty; they are able to understand his work since it flows free from form ("Boston Review" 1). "The consistency, the inclusive and transforming vitality of the work makes it the crowning achievement of Merwin's long and extremely diversified career" ("Boston Review" 1).
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.
Ellmann, Richard and Robert O’Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988.
Holbrook, David. Llareggub Revisted: Dylan Thomas and the State of Modern Poetry. Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes, 1965. 100-101.
Ellmann, Richard and O'Clair, Robert, ed. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
For this assignment, I have decided to write about a famous poem of Billy Collins which is titled as ‘Introduction to Poetry’ written in 1996.
It is a period when traditional values start to change.This movement causes innovations in science,art,culture,ethics,philosophy and psychology.It intends to find new or hidden meanings in the human experience.It’s main aim is to deal with new ideas.It is a break with the tradition.Modernist Poetry occurs between the 1890 and 1970.It’s key elements can be experimentation,anti realism,individualism.Experimentation means searching constantly.Anti-realism means to be against realism and concreteness.Individualism means to be an intellectual and to be an individual who has a self-confidence.The stress is mainly on the human mind rather than emotions.Many Modernist poets are from Universities,they appreciate their work a lot.It is a movement which is complex and diversed.It takes some of the important aspects from the movements.Modernism supports that every aspect from industry to philosophy should be interrogated.In this way,culture’s elements could be replaced by the new ones.The Modernist English poets write against the rules that are put by Victorian Poetry.They never deny the past poets or past works.They see themselves as they are respecting the earlier periods and other cultures.Their poems seem to be in longer form i...
?London? is a poem of serious social satire directed against social institutions. According to Blake author Michael Phillips ?it is a poem whose moral realism is so severe that it is raised to the intensity of apocalyptic vision.? Blake becomes more specific in his descriptions of the prevalent evil and moral decay of society as the poem progresses. Blake?s informative nature is clearly evident in ?London? as he ?points the finger? and exposes powerful institutions.
The poems ‘lines composed on Westminster Bridge’ and ‘London’ are created by William Wordsworth and William Blake respectively. Wordsworth’s work originated in the eighteenth century and he himself lived in the countryside, and rarely visited large cities such as London. This is reflected on his poem, making it personal to his experience in London, however William Blake on the other hand had a vast knowledge of London and was actually a London poet, which allowed him to express his views of London from a Londoner’s point of view. I therefore will be examining comparisons in both poems, as well as their contrasting views of London and the poetic devices used to express their opinions.
Many may argue that the Modernist movement was a completely new and unique movement within British literature. The goal of this paper is to determine whether or not the Modernist Literary Movement was completely unique or not. The similarities found in the works of Modernist authors and poets, such as Joseph Conrad and Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), will be examined against Romanticism themes and authors such as William Wordsworth. What will be found is that Modernism is not a completely unique movement, but one that combines elements from previous literary movements.
Works Cited Bergman, David, and Mark Epstein. The Heath Guide to Poetry. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1983. Print. The. Lancashire, Ian.