Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
John Betjeman
-
Standard Name: Betjeman, John
JB
was a writer of popular, plangent, often nostalgic poems, who served as Poet Laureate from 1969. He also published an autobiography in blank verse, a novel about a teddy bear, and books and articles on architecture.
She begins by quoting in its entirety Robert Browning
's poem entitled Memorabilia, which as she observes is better known by its opening line, Ah, did you once see Shelley
plain?
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery.
prelims
She approaches...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Philip Larkin
The central subject is the period which saw the rise of modernism and its assimilation—or not—into the native English tradition,
Motion, Andrew. Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life. Faber and Faber.
John Betjeman
(who became Poet Laureate in 1972) writes in his introduction to IT
's long poem The Marsh Picnic, 1966, that she had published another volume of poems in 1919 under the title...
Textual Features
Philip Larkin
His selection was resolutely unfashionable, favouring Hardy
and Betjeman
at the expense of Eliot
and Pound
. He was, however, remarkably generous in his selection of women poets (often for just one or two poems...
Reception
Kathleen Raine
She stood as a candidate for election as Professor of Poetry at Oxford
in 1968, but was unsuccessful. (Four years later John Betjeman
told her that she would have been a better choice for Poet...
Reception
Philip Larkin
PL
declined the poet laureateship, which was offered him after John Betjeman
died (on 19 May 1984), on the grounds that he was no longer a practising poet. His many honorary doctorates included those with...
Publishing
Iris Tree
Poet John Betjeman
wrote a short biographical introduction for the poem, in which he refers to its having been passed around privately before publication. Story has it that the book was finally published at the...
For a first publication, this garnered much positive comment. While The Guardian, Sir John Betjeman
in the Daily Telegraph, and Angus Wilson
in the Observer were comparatively unappreciative, Kingsley Amis
in The Spectator...
Literary responses
Theodora Benson
John Betjeman
, reviewing this book in the Daily Herald, called it a beautiful novel. . . . Full of acute feminine observation, drinks, jokes, talk in keeping with its varied characters, atmosphere and...
Literary responses
Monica Dickens
Persephone
's webside quotes two excellent reviews from the date of first publication—one from John Betjeman
and one from Elizabeth Bowen
.
Book critic Ivor Brown
of the New York Times Book Review commented on the academic neglect of DDM
's work in his review of The Parasites: When the academic professors of Literature in Our...
Literary responses
Rumer Godden
This was one of RG
's great successes. Her agent Spencer Curtis Brown
said of the central idea, [y]ou do go out of the way to make things difficult. A little boy complained that she...
Literary responses
Iris Tree
In his introduction Betjeman
calls the poem strangely haunting, and judges that It belongs to the age of the 1920's [sic] and early 30's [sic], both in phraseology and outlook. According to him, it is...
Literary responses
Philip Larkin
This collection was a Poetry Book Society
choice. It received an award from the Arts Council
and brought Larkin the Queen's Medal for Poetry in June 1965.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Brennan, Maeve. The Philip Larkin I Knew. Manchester University Press.
Late October 1955: The Welsh poet R. S. (Ronald Stuart) Thomas...
Writing climate item
Late October 1955
The Welsh poetR. S. (Ronald Stuart) Thomas
first came to wide notice with his collection Song at the Year's Turning (with an introduction by John Betjeman
), which drew on three earlier volumes.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
