Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a significant
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
modernistModernist poetry refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1930 in the tradition of modernist literature; the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in question, and the biases of the critic setting the dates...
poet whose reputation was established with the publication of
BriggflattsBriggflatts is a long poem by Basil Bunting published in 1965. The work is subtitled "An Autobiography." The title "Briggflatts" comes from a meetinghouse in a Quaker community near Sedbergh in the United Kingdom...
in 1966. He had a lifelong interest in music that led him to emphasise the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud. He was an accomplished reader of his own work.
Born into a Quaker family in Scotswood-on-Tyne,
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
(now part of
Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England...
), Bunting was educated at the
Royal Grammar SchoolRoyal Grammar School Newcastle upon Tyne, known locally and often abbreviated as RGS, is a long-established co-educational, independent school in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It gained its Royal Charter under Queen Elizabeth I...
there for two years.
Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a significant
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
modernistModernist poetry refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1930 in the tradition of modernist literature; the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in question, and the biases of the critic setting the dates...
poet whose reputation was established with the publication of
BriggflattsBriggflatts is a long poem by Basil Bunting published in 1965. The work is subtitled "An Autobiography." The title "Briggflatts" comes from a meetinghouse in a Quaker community near Sedbergh in the United Kingdom...
in 1966. He had a lifelong interest in music that led him to emphasise the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud. He was an accomplished reader of his own work.
Biography
Born into a Quaker family in Scotswood-on-Tyne,
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
(now part of
Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England...
), Bunting was educated at the
Royal Grammar SchoolRoyal Grammar School Newcastle upon Tyne, known locally and often abbreviated as RGS, is a long-established co-educational, independent school in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It gained its Royal Charter under Queen Elizabeth I...
there for two years. He then studied at two Quaker schools: from 1912–1916 at
Ackworth SchoolAckworth School is an independent school located in the village of High Ackworth, near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of eight Quaker Schools in England. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and SHMIS . The head is Kathryn Bell, who succeeded...
in
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
and from 1916–1918 at
Leighton Park SchoolLeighton Park School is a Quaker public school for both boarding and day pupils in Reading, Berkshire, England. The school was founded in 1890, thirteen years after Grove School Tottenham which had educated such people as Lord Lister, had closed...
in
BerkshireBerkshire is a county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters...
.. His Quaker education strongly influenced his pacifist opposition to
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, and in 1918 he was arrested as a
conscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war or, in some cases, to take any role that would support a combatant organization armed forces. In the first case, conscientious objectors may be willing to accept...
, serving a sentence of more than a year in
Wormwood ScrubsHM Prison Wormwood Scrubs is a Category B men's prison, located in the Wormwood Scrubs area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, in inner-West London, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service....
and
Winchester prisonHM Prison Winchester is a Category B men's prison, located in Winchester, Hampshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
s. These events were to have an important role in his first major poem, "Villon" (1925). "Villon" was one of a rather rare set of complexly structured poems that Bunting labelled "sonatas," thus underlining the sonic qualities of his verse and recalling his love of music. After his release from prison in 1920, traumatized by the time spent in jail, Bunting went to London, where he enrolled in the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science, commonly referred to as the London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London in London, England....
, and had his first contacts with journalists, social activists and Bohemia. Tradition has it that it was
Nina HamnettNina Hamnett was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia.- Early life :...
who introduced him to the works of Ezra Pound by lending him a copy of
Homage to Sextus Propertius. The glamour of the cosmopolitan modernist examples of Nina Hamnett and
Mina LoyMina Loy born Mina Gertrude Lowy was an artist, poet, playwright, novelist, Futurist, actress, Christian Scientist, designer of lamps and bohemian extraordinaire. She was one of the last of the first generation modernists to achieve posthumous recognition. Her poetry was admired by T. S...
seems to have influenced Bunting in his later move from London to Paris.
After having travelled in Northern Europe while holding small secretarial jobs in London, Bunting left the London School of Economics without a degree and went to France. There, in 1923, he became friendly with
Ezra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in the first half of the 20th century. He is generally considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry...
, who years later would dedicate his
Guide to Kulchur (1938) to both Bunting and
Louis ZukofskyLouis Zukofsky was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. He was co-founder and primary theorist of the Objectivist group of poets and was to be an important influence on subsequent generations of poets in America and abroad.-Early life and writings:He was born in...
, "strugglers in the desert". Bunting's poetry began to show the influence of this friendship. He visited Pound in
RapalloRapallo is a municipality in the province of Genoa, in Liguria, northern Italy. As of 2007 it counts approximately 34,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Tigullio Gulf and is located in between Portofino and Chiavari....
, Italy, and later settled there with his family from 1931 to 1933. He was published in the
ObjectivistThe Objectivist poets were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists who emerged in the 1930s. They were mainly American and were influenced by, amongst others, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams...
issue of
PoetryPoetry, published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately 90,000 submissions.Poetry has been financed since...
magazine, in the
Objectivist Anthology, and in Pound's
Active Anthology. He also worked as a music critic during this time.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Bunting served in British Military Intelligence in
PersiaIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
. After the war, he continued to serve on the British Embassy staff in
TehranTehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Tochal mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia...
until he was expelled by Muhammad Mussadegh in 1952.
Back in Newcastle, he worked as a journalist on the
Evening Chronicle until his rediscovery during the 1960s by young poets, notably
Tom PickardTom Pickard is a poet, radio and film maker who was an important initiator of the movement known as the British Poetry Revival....
and
Jonathan WilliamsJonathan Williams may refer to:*Jonathan Williams , Welsh antiquary*Jonathan Williams , American businessman, military figure, politician, writer and engineer*Jonathan Williams...
, who were interested in working in the modernist tradition. In 1966, he published his major long poem,
BriggflattsBriggflatts is a long poem by Basil Bunting published in 1965. The work is subtitled "An Autobiography." The title "Briggflatts" comes from a meetinghouse in a Quaker community near Sedbergh in the United Kingdom...
, named for the Quaker meeting house in
CumbriaCumbria is a shire county in the North West of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...
where he is now buried.
Briggflatts
Divided into five parts,
Briggflatts is a kind of poetic
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, looking back on teenage love and on Bunting's involvement in the high modernist period. In addition, "Briggflatts" can be read as a meditation on the limits of life and a celebration of Northumbrian culture and dialect, as symbolised by events and figures like the doomed Viking King
Eric BloodaxeEric Haraldsson , nicknamed ‘Bloodaxe’ , was a 10th-century Scandinavian ruler. He is thought to have had short-lived terms as the second king of Norway and as the last independent ruler of the kingdom of Northumbria Eric Haraldsson (Erik, anglicised form of ; died 954), nicknamed ‘Bloodaxe’...
. The critic
Cyril ConnollyCyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer.-Early life:Cyril Connolly was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the only child of Matthew William Kemble Connolly, an officer in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, by his wife Muriel Maud Vernon, daughter of an...
was among the first to recognise the poem's value, describing it as "the finest long poem to have been published in England since
T. S. EliotThomas Stearns Eliot, OM , was a poet, playwright, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Among his most famous writings are The Love Song of J...
's
Four QuartetsFour Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, "Burnt Norton", was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play, Murder in the Cathedral...
".
Portrait bust of Basil Bunting
Basil Bunting sat in Northumberland for sculptor
Alan ThornhillAlan Thornhill is a British artist and sculptor whose long association with clay developed from pottery into sculpture. His evolved methods of working enabled the dispensing of the sculptural armature to allow improvisation, whilst his portraiture challenges notions of normality through rigorous...
with a resulting terracotta (for bronze) in existence. The correspondence file relating to the Bunting portrait bust is held as part of the Thornhill Papers (2006:56) in the archive of the
Henry Moore FoundationThe Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with the assistance of Mr. Moore in 1977...
's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and the terracotta remains in the collection of the artist.
External links