Brian Patten — English Poet
In 1967, when The Beatles were at their peak, Penguin published a book of poetry called The Mersey Sound which featured Liverpool poets Roger McGough, Adrian Henri, and Brian Patten which, in terms of its poetic content was quite revelatory for the likes of me. It was accessible stuff which encouraged me to read more and more poetry, and I soon realised the three Liverpool bards were firmly linked to such poets as Louis MacNeice and Dylan Thomas, and further back in time, Walt Whitman and Tennyson; they also gave the old curmudgeon, Philip Larkin, a run for his money.
Of the three Brian Patten was the one I latched onto.
Born in 1946, a year before me, Patten’s work often has a late Victorian feel to it, not unlike a 1890s church pew that has been stripped down to reveal the original grain, beauty, colour and truth.
In the same year as The Mersey Sound, George Allen and Unwin published Patten’s first solo book of poetry, Little Johnny’s Confession, with most of the poems written when Patten was only nineteen, and written to be read out loud.
There was something of a renaissance of performance poetry in the late 1960s in the UK, which the three Liverpool poets led for a time, and something which may have been ignited by pianist and composer, Stan Tracey’s 1965 Jazz Suite, Under Milk Wood, inspired by Dylan Thomas’s play…
