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In September, we’re discussing THE LIVERPOOL POETS!Poets’ Corner is a monthly poetry discussion group. We meet from 7-8.30pm at The Bridge Hotel Vaults in Sunderland. New members are always welcome: just turn up! The event is FREE but you’ll want to buy drinks and Midnight Pizza Cru now serve food in the bar!
The Liverpool poets are a number of influential 1960s poets from Liverpool, England, influenced by 1950s Beat poetry.
Their work is characterised by its directness of expression, simplicity of language, suitability for live performance and concern for contemporary subjects and references. There is often humour, but the full range of human experience and emotion is addressed.
The poets most commonly associated with this label are Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten. They were featured in a 1967 book The Liverpool Scene edited by Edward Lucie-Smith, with a blurb by Ginsberg and published by Donald Carroll.
The poets generally came from a working-class background and went to art college rather than university. There was a strong allegiance with pop music, and the values and effectiveness of that in reaching out to a wide audience informed the poetry. Readings took place in a pub or club environment.
The anthology The Mersey Sound was published by Penguin in 1967, containing the poems of Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten, and has remained in print ever since, selling in excess of 500,000 copies. It brought the three poets to "considerable acclaim and critical fame",[1] and has been widely influential. In 2002 they were given the Freedom of the City of Liverpool.
Alan Bleasdale said, "The poetry of Henri, Patten and McGough has stayed with me for 35 years. The beauty is its accessibility."
You can dive in here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/roger-mcgough
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/adrian-henri
http://www.brianpatten.co.uk/poetry.html
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Bridge Hotel Vaults , 145 High Street West,City of Sunderland, Sunderland, United Kingdom
