British Poetry Revival

The British Poetry Revival is the general name given to a loose poetic movement in Britain that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The Revival was a modernist-inspired reaction to the 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, including the British poets David Jones, Basil Bunting and Hugh MacDiarmid. Although these 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.

Related Topics:
Thomas Hardy - David Jones - Basil Bunting - Hugh MacDiarmid

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These poets included Roy Fisher, Gael Turnbull, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Bob Cobbing, Jeff Nuttall, Tom Raworth, Michael Horovitz, Eric Mottram, Peter Finch, Edwin Morgan, Jim Burns, 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.

Related Topics:
Roy Fisher - Gael Turnbull - Ian Hamilton Finlay - Bob Cobbing - Jeff Nuttall - Tom Raworth - Michael Horovitz - Eric Mottram - Peter Finch - Edwin Morgan - Jim Burns - Lee Harwood - Christopher Logue - Allen Ginsberg - Albert Hall Poetry Incarnation - June 11 - 1965 - Happening

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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 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 Scots Morgan and Finlay both worked with found, 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.

Related Topics:
William Carlos Williams - Birmingham - Scots - Found - Sound - Visual poetry - Beat generation - Black Mountain poets - New York School

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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, Shearsman, 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 ' (1969).

Related Topics:
Fulcrum Press - Tim Longville - Grosseteste Review - Shearsman - Poetry Information - Andrew Crozier - Peter Riley - The English Intelligencer - 1969

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