English poetry

The history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in European culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is unavoidably ambiguous. It can mean poetry written in England (and, by extension, the United Kingdom), or poetry written in English.

The 20th century

The first three decades

The Victorian era continued into the early years of the 20th century and two figures emerged as the leading representative of the poetry of the old era to act as a bridge into the new. These were Yeats and Thomas Hardy. Yeats, although not a modernist, was to learn a lot from the new poetic movements that sprang up around him and adapted his writing to the new circumstances. Hardy was, in terms of technique at least, a more traditional figure and was to be a reference point for various anti-modernist reactions, especially from the 1950s onwards.

Related Topics:
20th century - Yeats - Thomas Hardy

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The Georgian poets

The Georgian poets were the first major grouping of the post-Victorian era. Their work appeared in a series of five anthologies called Georgian Poetry which were published by Harold Monro and edited by Edward Marsh. The poets featured included Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, D. H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare and Siegfried Sassoon. Their poetry represented something of a reaction to the decadence of the 1890s and tended towards the sentimental. Brooke and Sassoon were to go on to win reputations as war poets and Lawrence quickly distanced himself from the group and was associated with the modernist movement.

Related Topics:
Georgian poets - Harold Monro - Edward Marsh - Edmund Blunden - Rupert Brooke - Robert Graves - D. H. Lawrence - Walter de la Mare - Siegfried Sassoon

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World War I

As already noted, the Georgian poets Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon are now mostly remembered for their war poetry. Other notable poets who wrote about the war include Isaac Rosenberg, Edward Thomas, Wilfred Owen, May Cannan and, from the home front, Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. Although many of these poets wrote socially aware criticism of the war, most remained technically conservative and traditionalist.

Related Topics:
War - Isaac Rosenberg - Edward Thomas - Wilfred Owen - May Cannan - Rudyard Kipling

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Modernism

The early decades of the 20th century saw the United States begin to overtake Britain as the major economic power. In the world of poetry, this period also saw American writers at the forefront of avant-garde practices. Among the foremost of these poets were T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, both of whom spent part, and in Eliot's case a considerable part, of their writing lives in England.

Related Topics:
United States - T.S. Eliot - Ezra Pound

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Pound's involvement with the Imagists marked the beginning of a revolution in the way poetry was written. British poets involved with this group included D. H. Lawrence, Richard Aldington, T. E. Hulme, F. S. Flint, Ford Madox Ford, Allen Upward and John Cournos. Eliot, particularly after the publication of The Waste Land, became a major figure and influence on other British poets.

Related Topics:
Imagist - Richard Aldington - T. E. Hulme - F. S. Flint - Ford Madox Ford - Allen Upward - John Cournos

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In addition to these poets, other British modernists began to emerge. These included the London-Welsh poet and painter David Jones, whose first book, In Parenthesis, was one of the very few experimental poems to come out of World War I, the Scot Hugh MacDiarmid, Mina Loy and Basil Bunting.

Related Topics:
David Jones - Hugh MacDiarmid - Mina Loy - Basil Bunting

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The Thirties

The poets who began to emerge in the 1930s had two things in common; they had all been born too late to have any real experience of the pre-World War I world and they grew up in a period of social, economic and political turmoil. Perhaps as a consequence of these facts, themes of community, social (in)justice and war seem to dominate the poetry of the decade.

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The New Country poets

The poetic landscape of the decade was dominated by four poets; W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Cecil Day-Lewis and Louis MacNeice, although the last of these belongs at least as much to the history of Irish poetry. These poets were all, in their early days at least, politically active on the Left. Although they admired Eliot, they also represented a move away from the technical innovations of their modernist predecessors. A number of other, less enduring, poets also worked in the same vein. One of these was Michael Roberts, whose New Country anthology both introduced the group to a wider audience and gave them their name.

Related Topics:
W. H. Auden - Stephen Spender - Cecil Day-Lewis - Louis MacNeice - Left - Michael Roberts

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Surrealism and others

The 1930s also saw the emergence of a home-grown English surrealist poetry whose main exponents were David Gascoyne, Hugh Sykes Davies, George Barker, and Philip O'Connor. These poets turned to French models rather than either the New Country poets or English-language modernism, and their work was to prove of importance to later English experimental poets as it broadened the scope of the British avant-garde tradition.

Related Topics:
Surrealist - David Gascoyne - Hugh Sykes Davies - George Barker - Philip O'Connor

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John Betjeman and Stevie Smith, who were two of the most significant poets of this period, stood outside all schools and groups. Betjeman was a quietly ironic poet of Middle England with a fine command of a wide range of verse techniques. Smith was an entirely unclassifiable one-off voice.

Related Topics:
John Betjeman - Stevie Smith - Verse

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The Forties

The war poets

The 1940s opened with Britain at war and a new generation of war poets emerged in response. These included Keith Douglas, Alun Lewis, Henry Reed and F. T. Prince. As with the poets of the First World War, the work of these writers can be seen as something of an interlude in the history of 20th century poetry. Technically, many of these war poets owed something to the 1930s poets, but their work grew out of the particular circumstances in which they found themselves living and fighting.

Related Topics:
Keith Douglas - Alun Lewis - Henry Reed - F. T. Prince

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The New Romantics

The main movement in post-war 1940s poetry was the New Romantic group that included Dylan Thomas, George Barker, W. S. Graham, Kathleen Raine, Henry Treece and J. F. Hendry. These writers saw themselves as in revolt against the classicism of the New Country poets. They turned to such models as Gerard Manley Hopkins, Arthur Rimbaud and Hart Crane and the word play of James Joyce. Thomas, in particular, helped Anglo-Welsh poetry to emerge as a recognisable force.

Related Topics:
Dylan Thomas - George Barker - W. S. Graham - Kathleen Raine - Henry Treece - J. F. Hendry - Gerard Manley Hopkins - Arthur Rimbaud - Hart Crane - James Joyce - Anglo-Welsh poetry

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Other 1940s poets

Other significant poets to emerge in the 1940s include Lawrence Durrell, Bernard Spencer, Roy Fuller, Norman Nicholson, Vernon Watkins, R. S. Thomas and Norman McCaig. These last four poets represent a trend towards regionalism and poets writing about their native areas; Watkins and Thomas in Wales, Nicholson in Cumberland and MacCaig in Scotland.

Related Topics:
Lawrence Durrell - Bernard Spencer - Roy Fuller - Norman Nicholson - Vernon Watkins - R. S. Thomas - Norman McCaig - Wales - Cumberland - Scotland

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The Fifties

The 1950s were dominated by three groups of poets, The Movement, The Group and a number of poets that gathered around the label Extremist Art.

Related Topics:
The Movement - The Group - Extremist Art

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The Movement

The Movement poets as a group came to public notice in Robert Conquest's 1955 anthology New Lines. The core of the group consisted of Philip Larkin, Elizabeth Jennings, D. J. Enright, Kingsley Amis, Thom Gunn and Donald Davie. They were identified with a hostility to modernism and internationalism, and looked to Hardy as a model. However, both Davie and Gunn later moved away from this position.

Related Topics:
Robert Conquest - 1955 - Philip Larkin - Elizabeth Jennings - D. J. Enright - Kingsley Amis - Thom Gunn - Donald Davie

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The Group

As befits their name, the Group were much more formally a group of poets, meeting for weekly discussions under the chairmanship of Philip Hobsbaum and Edward Lucie-Smith. Other Group poets included Martin Bell, Peter Porter, Peter Redgrove, George MacBeth and David Wevill. Hobsbaum spent some time teaching in Belfast, where he was a formative influence on the emerging Northern Ireland poets including Seamus Heaney.

Related Topics:
The Group - Philip Hobsbaum - Edward Lucie-Smith - Martin Bell - Peter Porter - Peter Redgrove - George MacBeth - David Wevill - Belfast - Seamus Heaney

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The Extremist Art poets

The term Extremist Art was first used by the poet A. Alvarez to describe the work of the American poet Sylvia Plath. Other poets associated with this group included Plath's one-time husband Ted Hughes, Francis Berry and Jon Silkin. These poets are sometimes compared with the Expressionist German school.

Related Topics:
A. Alvarez - Sylvia Plath - Ted Hughes - Francis Berry - Jon Silkin - Expressionist

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The Modernist tradition

A number of young poets working in what might be termed a modernist vein also started publishing during this decade. These included Charles Tomlinson, Gael Turnbull, Roy Fisher and Bob Cobbing. These poets can now be seen as forerunners of some of the major developments during the following two decades.

Related Topics:
Charles Tomlinson - Gael Turnbull - Roy Fisher - Bob Cobbing

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The 1960s and 1970s

In the early part of the 1960s, the centre of gravity of mainstream poetry moved to Ireland, with the emergence of Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin, Paul Muldoon and others. In Britain, the most cohesive groupings can, in retrospect, be seen to cluster around what might loosely be called the modernist tradition and draw on American as well as indigenous models.

Related Topics:
Seamus Heaney - Tom Paulin - Paul Muldoon

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The British Poetry Revival

The British Poetry Revival was a wide-reaching collection of groupings and subgroupings that embraces performance, sound and concrete poetry as well as the legacy of Pound, Jones, MacDiarmid, Loy and Bunting, the Objectivist poets, the Beats and the Black Mountain poets, among others. Leading poets associated with this movement include J. H. Prynne, Eric Mottram, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley and Lee Harwood.

Related Topics:
British Poetry Revival - Performance - Sound - Concrete poetry - Objectivist poets - The Beats - Black Mountain poets - J. H. Prynne - Eric Mottram - Tom Raworth - Denise Riley - Lee Harwood

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The Mersey Beat

The Mersey Beat poets were Adrian Henri, Brian Patten and Roger McGough. Their work was a self-conscious attempt at creating a British equivalent to the Beats. Many of their poems were written in protest against the established social order and, particularly, the threat of nuclear war. Although not actually a Mersey Beat poet, Adrian Mitchell is often associated with the group in critical discussion.

Related Topics:
Mersey Beat poets - Adrian Henri - Brian Patten - Roger McGough - Adrian Mitchell

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