Abstract
This paper presents a comparative study of the three Liverpool poets — Brian Patten, Adrian Henri, and Roger McGough — who spearheaded the Liverpool poetic scene in the early 1960s. The study examines their shared commitment to poetry as a public performed art, their simplification of poetic writing for mass audiences, and their individual stylistic differences. While all three poets were rooted in Liverpool’s working-class culture and influenced by pop culture, the Beatles, and the Beat movement, Patten is distinguished by his literary qualities and emotional depth, Henri by his painterly sensibility and wordplay, and McGough by his wit and humor. The paper traces their collective impact on British poetry, their critical reception, and their lasting contribution to making poetry accessible to the common reader.
Keywords: Liverpool poets, Brian Patten, Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, performance poetry, pop culture, British poetry
Introduction
The concept of Liverpool poetic scene as introduced by Lucie Smith in his anthology originated in the early sixties. The Liverpool poets appeared on the literary scene in 1967. The name was originally coined by Lucie Smith who titled the anthology of these poets as The Liverpool Scene. The chief figures who spearheaded the Liverpool poetic scene were Brian Patten (1946-), Adrian Henri (1932-2000) and Roger McGough (1937-). The Liverpool poets, unlike their predecessors, simplified the art of poetic writing as they catered to the masses, and the common man. They believe in propagating poetry as a “public performed art.” Though these poets have published volumes together and individually, their poetry also reaches the masses through oral poetic performances.
George Melly in his book Revolt into Style proclaims that among the poets of Liverpool school, it is Brian Patten who reveals traditional literary qualities, though he was associated with the other Liverpool poets like McGough, Henri and Pete Brown who were influenced by, and were subsequently to influence rock music. The Liverpool poets also contributed to the cultural explosion in the Liverpool city in the 60s. Liverpool city had “spawned and been spawned by The Beatles” (Booth 133) in the sixties.
The Liverpool Poetic Scene
Lucie Smith in his anthology of the Liverpool poets The Liverpool Scene gives a graphic account of the impact the Liverpool city had on these upcoming poets of the sixties. According to Allen Ginsberg, Liverpool is “the centre of the consciousness of the human universe” (qtd. in Smith 25). Pete Brown gives a lively account of the Liverpool literary scene when he recalls how the budding poets of the Liverpool scene gathered at Streate’s coffee bar, and gave poetry performances. He says that the coffee bar was “the centre of activity and meetings” (qtd. in Lucie Smith 6).
In the early sixties, Henri, Patten and McGough were gaining reputation as performance poets. Brian Patten, a “cub reporter” on the Bootle Times, gained recognition through his oral performance in clubs and coffee houses. The influence of the Liverpool city on poets Henri, McGough and Patten is considerable. According to Lucie Smith, the poets from Liverpool seems to have a “curious love-hate relationship” with the city (7).
The Liverpool literary scene was also associated with the prevalent pop culture at the beginning. Even in the early sixties, the Liverpool poets like Henri and McGough were fascinated by pop music, and were determined to apply rigorous standards to the pop material to raise its level. Patten believes in the “poetic entertainment but poetic entertainment is not poetry, it’s not sort of big enough” (qtd. in Smith 10-11).
Poetry as Public Performance
The performance poetry became popular due to the combined efforts of Patten, Henri and McGough. The publication of the anthology Penguin Modern poets N0.10 - The Mersey Sound in 1967 established their reputation as the Liverpool poets in the literary circle. All the three poets — Henri, McGough and Patten — have developed separately since then, though their literary outlook is characterized by their common belief in poetry to be a literary form worthy of public performance.
The poetry of the Liverpool poets differs from other contemporary English verse, due to its “oral tradition.” As Lucie Smith says “it has made its impact by being spoken and listened to, rather than read” (qtd. in Cookson 8). Henri and McGough encouraged audience to see poetry as an entertainment catered to the working class audience by writing verse that was humorous, witty, colloquial and rooted in urban life.
The Liverpool poets have thus succeeded in making poetry accessible to people. Patten admits that the aim of the Liverpool group of poets was to reach out to the common man, to the general public. “I think we’ve influenced each other mainly in the need to make poetry continually accessible to people” (qtd. in Cookson 21).
Rhetorical Devices and Poetic Techniques
The poetry of the Liverpool poets is characterized by an undercurrent of sarcasm, irony, and pungent wit, which runs through almost all their poems. They are also noted for their directness of expression, simplicity of style (in the manner of Robert Frost), and their deft handling of complicated ideas in uncomplicated language.
Some of the rhetorical devices adopted by the Liverpool poets (and many of the underground poets) are the use of cliche, “Ubi Sunt” lyric and the use of metaphor for its own sake (metamorphic poem). Henri expresses the need for the revaluation of the cliche when he says that by revitalizing a cliche, one can give new meaning to an archaic word.
The Liverpool poets employ the poetic technique of ubi sunt lyric or the construction of the entire poem around a single rhetorical device as exemplified by a series of poems by Patten such as Bat Man and Maud. Another important trait of the Liverpool poets is their use of metaphors for their own sake. Lindop calls this kind of poem as “the poem of metamorphosis” (98) which in modern poetry became the simplest and most accessible form of surrealism.
Patten’s Poetic Achievement
Patten’s chief poetic works for adults are Little Johnny’s Confession (1967), Notes to the Hurrying Man: Poems Winter ‘66-Summer ‘68 (1969), The Irrelevant Song and Other Poems (1971), The Unreliable Nightingale (1973), Vanishing Trick (1976), Grave Gossip (1979), Love Poems (1981), Storm Damage (1988), Grinning Jack (1990), and Armada (1996).
Patten’s first volume of poetry Little Johnny’s Confession was considered to be a masterpiece when it was published in 1967. According to Booth, the title poem has a “blend of dream, violence and pathos in it” (136). Bulk of Patten’s poetry dealt with the themes of lost innocence and feeling of disillusionment experienced by the youth.
Patten’s poetry is a reflective glass that mirrors his own optimism, his immense faith in the human nature, and his perception of man’s feeling of resignation to mystifying fate as well as to the twists and turns of the inscrutable life. He wrote “what people understood about themselves and wanted to have explained” (Booth 137). Booth concludes that the most important thing about Patten’s work is that it is not “dated in the least” nor will it be in the years to come as “the innocence of the ‘flower power’ years has not been lost in the subsequent years of social violence” (138).
Henri and McGough
It should be noted that in the poetry of McGough and Henri, the serious tone of Patten’s poetry is not to be found, though in their poetry there is flippancy of tone and lighthearted appeal that made up for a lack of depth in their verse. McGough and Henri are very much close to each other in their poetic style and can be seen as “twins in artistic terms” (Booth 138) as they write in similar moulds on similar subject matter.
Booth says that the poetry of Henri and McGough is characterized by wordplay, inventiveness, interspersed with witty anagrams and lighthearted bantering: “Their poetry is typified by copious wordplayings, a somewhat stylized sense of wit and a certain sadness at times which manifests itself in the form of lost youth, sorry loves and the downs of life in cities” (138).
Critical Reception
The Liverpool poets’ popularity in the late 60s and early 70s is partly derived from anthologies such as The Liverpool Scene, The Mersey Sound, and partly due to their revival of poetry as a performed art, through their frequent appearances on stage throughout the country and on television. Anthony Thwait in 1985 remarked that these three poets are, “old troupers and they must rely on the surefire audience-holding techniques, not on the charm of self-identification of mere youth” (101-102).
Peter Porter criticized the poetry of the Liverpool poets as being “cabaret type of poetry” that caters to the taste of the working class people and uninformed provincials. Though Peter Porter does not approve of Patten’s sentimental verse, he admits that Patten has got that “little touch of moonlight on the page” (Lindop 207).
Lindop acknowledges that Patten is the most promising talent among the Liverpool poets. “There seems, atleast to be more potential for development in Brian Patten’s recent work {The Irrelevant Song} than that of the other Liverpool poets and underground poets” (106).
Conclusion
As Bowen surmises whether Patten, Henri and McGough singly or collectively go down in the annals of history or amount to little more than an anecdotal footnote in the myriad lists of reputations that form a part of the 20th century literature, only time will be the judge. But no one can deny the fact that their poetry will survive. Patten and the other two Liverpool poets have become the mouthpiece or the spokesmen of the people of their times.
Works Cited
- Bowen, Phil. A Gallery to Play to: The Story of the Mersey Poets. England: Stride Publications, 1999.
- Booth, Martin. British Poetry 1964-84: Driving through the Barricades. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.
- Causley, Charles. “Brian Patten.” Twentieth Children’s Writers. 3rd. Ed. Tracy Chevalier. London: St James Press, 1989. 762-63.
- Cookson, Linda. Brian Patten. United Kingdom: Northcote House in Association with the British Council, 1997.
- Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1988.
- Melly, George. Revolt into Style: The Pop Arts in Britain. London: Penguin, 1970.
- Thwait, Anthony. Poetry Today: A Critical Guide to British Poetry 1960-84. London: Longman, 1985.