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FEATURES OF THE LIVERPOOL POETRY Khakimova M.D.
Khakimova Maksadhon Dilshodbekovna - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGES, ENGLISH
LANGUAGES FACULTY 3, UZBEKISTAN STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: the Liverpool poets, Adrian Henri (1932-2000), Roger McGough (1937- ), and Brian Patten (1946- ) began their careers in poetry by giving readings in the clubs and coffee bars of Liverpool in the 1960s, and gained recognition in print in Penguin Modern Poets 10: The Mersey Sound (1967) and The Liverpool Scene (1968). The works of other poets were included in The Liverpool Scene, but it was Henri, McGough, and Patten who were featured in The Mersey Sound and went on to fame as The Liverpool Poets. Keywords: Liverpool poets, the Movement, pop art, surrealism, gentle humor.
They were writing at a time when the poetry of The Movement was prominent, but their roots, and aims, were different from those of established poets. They wrote their poetry to be read aloud, and their audiences were young Liverpudlians who might normally have attended pop concerts, but were now finding that poetry could be equally accessible and appealing.
By opening poetry to a wider audience the Liverpool Poets were part of the democratisation of the arts which was also taking place in painting and sculpture in the pop art movement of the 1950s and '60s. Their poems deal with ordinary people in everyday situations, ('I'm concerned about the person next door, and the person next to me.' [1]) and are filled with images of their environment, such as streets, cafes, buses, parties, cinemas, and chip shops. They also drew on popular culture, such as pop music, comic books, and television, and make references to casual sexual relationships, and the 'recreational' drugs of the era such as cannabis and LSD. Political issues of the day, such as the Vietnam war, the Cold War, racial intolerance (see Patten's 'I'm Dreaming of a White Smethwick') and 'the bomb', also make an occasional appearance in their poems. 'The bomb' was a prominent topic of discussion in that Cold War era, and perhaps the pervasive background fear associated with the nuclear threat contributed to their impulse to write poetry to be performed in the here and now. Live for today, because we could all be annihilated at the push of a button tomorrow, was part of the mind-set of the generation growing up in the wake of Hiroshima.
Their Liverpool location was significant for two reasons, firstly because it was the home of The Beatles, and other Merseybeat pop groups, whose music was taking Britain and America by storm, making Liverpool famous, and secondly because it was provincial - away from the influence of London. Much of their work may have been loosely, even carelessly structured - poetic entertainment rather than serious poetry - but that mattered far less in Liverpool than it did in London, and if established literary critics did not consider them as serious poets that were of little concern to them [2]. They were proud of their working class backgrounds and provincial status and felt no need to worry about what the literary highbrows of London might think. The list is notable for the conspicuous absence of art galleries or any other kind of official building.
Their main influences were the Beat poets of America, particularly Alan Ginsberg, who impressed them when he visited Liverpool, and French Symbolist poetry, such as that of Baudelaire and Rimbaud. They were not interested in imitating the form or subject matter of the writers they admired, but were, rather, inspired by the mood and tone of their poems, and by their power to make an immediate emotional impact on the reader.
Their other influences were many and various. In Adrian Henri's poem 'Me' he lists people he admires, and alongside Burroughs, Rimbaud and Mallarmé we find pop, jazz, and
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classical musicians, radical political figures, film directors, artists, and poets and novelists from all eras. The concept of this poem has something in common with the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album of 1967, being a catalogue of diverse influences, and showing the levelling effect of pop culture in bringing together the 'high' and 'low' arts.
Henri dedicated the poem 'Mrs Albion You've Got a Lovely Daughter' to Ginsberg, and on the death of the leading figure of modernist poetry, T. S. Eliot, in 1965, paid tribute to him in 'Poem in Memoriam to T. S. Eliot', likening him to 'a favourite distant uncle' [3]. In Henri's poems we typically find whimsical surrealism, gentle humour, and wistful romanticism. We also find, reflecting his other artistic endeavours, frequent references to painting and borrowings from pop music. About the poetry of The Liverpool Poets being written with little regard for posterity needs to be qualified in relation to the later works of McGough and Patten. Of the three, Patten has emerged as the most serious poet, and was concerned even at the time of The Liverpool Scene about the distinction between poetry and poetic entertainment.
Patten's poems were more considered and carefully-crafted than those of the others. His poems were powered by feelings rather than ideas, and he had a deeper, more serious underlying purpose. Martin Booth wrote of him: Of the Liverpool poets, it was Brian Patten who became the leader, and it is he who has maintained his artistic hold and development, leading his ideas and muse on from earlier work to later progressions.
References
1. Booth Martin. British Poetry 1964-84: Driving Through the Barricades.-Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1985.
2. Lucie-Smith, Edward. ed. Introduction: The Liverpool Scene. New York: Doubleday.
1968.
3. Morrison Keth. Penguin Modern Poets 10: The Mersey Sound. Penguin, 1967.
