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Oh I loved Edgell Rickword but wasn't he a bit old to be a 'new' poet in 1949 (he was in WW 1 remember). I always think of him as a 'now-forgotten' poet of the 20s (who kept on writing. And wasn't forgotten.) McCaig wasn't the only 'Forties-style' poet to renounce his allegiance - Norman Nicholson too (or a young poet not Rexroth included, one P.Larkin - The North Ship was 1949 wasn't it?) On 10 January 2011 00:14, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Hey, I'm not *endorsing *the term "Apocalyptic", dave, just that I seem > to remember that it was the name attached to some poets who were thought to > be influenced by Dylan Thomas. Only reason that it stuck in my mind was the > McCaig connection. > > I'm still neanderthal enough not to trust stuff which just exists in the > Cloud, so natch the first thing I did was backtrack the Internet Archive URL > and download a pdf file from the HTML list there. Didn't quite get to > printing out a physical copy, but. (Last book I did that for was a rather > cute work called *The Conceited Pig*, starring a young porcine called > Wilbur. Whoever wrote it -- between 1842 and 1848 -- was sharp enough to > pick up on the Chicken Licken/Little story *before* there was even a > chicken in the narrative, from Robert Chamber's Scots version.) > > I notice Edgell Rickword ain't there -- shame that. Seems like his name > should be in the frame that Rexoth deploys. > > Robin > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> > *To:* [log in to unmask] > *Sent:* Sunday, January 09, 2011 6:52 PM > *Subject:* Re: Thanks, Robin.--Other Questions > > I think something called World War Two had more claim to Apocalyptic > paternity, Rob, although I don't think it's the only suspect. 'Under the > Volcano' is a kind of Apocalyptic masterpiece in prose, though Lowry had no > real connection with the 'school'. Edith Sitwell was just as representative > as Dylan Thomas too: 'Still Falls the Rain'. I like your revolutionary > notion of reading the thing as well as downloading it :) I spent a while > tonight bringing a smile to some hardy veterans who knew many of the people > in the anthology by going through the contents list and titles on the phone. > > > On 9 January 2011 22:10, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > >> By a curious coincidence (?), Rexroth includes Rayner Heppenstall, whom >> I hadn't heard of before yesterday, when I discovered he'd written a book >> called _Reflections on the Newgate Calendar_ (which I promptly ordered, as >> inter alia I'm trying to construct, not as easy as it might seem, a coherent >> ordering of the set of texts which together might be called "the Newgate >> Calendar"), and there he is as a poet! >> >> Nice to see Robert Garioch there, among the Scots, and more obviously >> Norman McCaig. As George Barker and the early (presumably) W.S.Graham are >> also included, it suggests that Rexroth might have latched onto the one >> poetic movement that Dylan Thomas did father, the Apocalypse Poets. (McCaig >> was part of it in the forties, I think, but later disowned the connection >> when his writing style changed.) >> >> But why is the execrable Stephen Spender there, but not MacNeice? >> >> Suggests I ought to read the anthology, which I've at least downloaded. >> >> Robin >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> >> *From:* Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]> >> *To:* [log in to unmask] >> *Sent:* Sunday, January 09, 2011 3:49 PM >> *Subject:* Re: Thanks, Robin.--Other Questions >> >> Rexroth's introduction is salutory and fascinating; as you say, full of >> bracing insights. I hadn't read it before. Many thanks for the link. >> >> xA >> >> On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 5:37 AM, colin herd <[log in to unmask]>wrote: >> >>> Another interesting aspect of that anthology is that Scottish poet Joseph >>> MacLeod is in it twice. Once as Joseph Macleod, and again as Adam Dirnan, >>> the pseudonym he used when he became famous working for the BBC, to avoid >>> the stigma of fame affecting the approach he took when writing poetry. Would >>> be interesting to know if Rexroth was aware they were the same writer, >>> though perhaps not, because the secret was not made public until 1953. >>> >>> On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 2:33 PM, GOODBY JOHN <[log in to unmask]>wrote: >>> >>>> Jess, that Rexroth anthology is The New British Poets (1948) - New >>>> Directions, so I don't think it came out in the UK. But it gives a great, >>>> because outsider's viewpoint, on the then state of British poetry. As you >>>> say, it has plenty of Scots - including Maclean, Soutar and Macleod - Welsh, >>>> and some Irish in it, and doesn't endorse a London-centric viewpoint. >>> >>> > > > -- > David Joseph Bircumshaw > Website and A Chide's Alphabet > http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw > twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave > blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/ > > -- David Joseph Bircumshaw Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/