Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist tradition in English. 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.Schmidt, Michael, ''Lives of the Poets'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998.

Life and career

Born into a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

family in Scotswood-on-Tyne, near

Newcastle-on-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

, he studied at two Quaker schools: from 1912 to 1916 at

Ackworth School Ackworth School is an independent day and boarding school located in the village of High Ackworth, near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school (or more accurately its Head) is a member ...

in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

and from 1916 to 1918 at

Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having been founded as a Quaker School in 1890. The school's ...

in Berkshire. His Quaker education strongly influenced his pacifist opposition to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and in 1918 he was arrested as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objec ...

having been refused recognition by the tribunals and refusing to comply with a notice of call-up. Handed over to the military, he was court-martialled for refusing to obey orders, and served a sentence of more than a year in

Wormwood Scrubs Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in Old Oak Common located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the borou ...

and Winchester prisons. Bunting's friend

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

described him as a "conservative/anti-fascist/imperialist", though Bunting himself listed the major influences on his artistic and personal outlook somewhat differently as "Jails and the sea, Quaker mysticism and socialist politics, a lasting unlucky passion, the slums of Lambeth and Hoxton ..." These events were to have an important role in his first major poem, "Villon" (1925). "Villon" was one of a rather rare set of complex structured poems that Bunting labelled "sonatas", thus underlining the sonic qualities of his verse and recalling his love of music. Other "sonatas" include "Attis: or, Something Missing", "Aus Dem Zweiten Reich", "The Well of Lycopolis", "The Spoils" and, finally, "Briggflatts". After his release from prison in 1919, traumatised by the time spent there, Bunting went to London, where he enrolled in the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

, and had his first contacts with journalists, social activists and Bohemia. Bunting was introduced to the works of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

Nina Hamnett Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Early life Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small c ...

who lent him a copy of ''Homage to Sextus Propertius''. The glamour of the cosmopolitan modernist examples of Nina Hamnett and

Mina Loy Mina Loy (born Mina Gertrude Löwy; 27 December 1882 – 25 September 1966) was a British-born artist, writer, poet, playwright, novelist, painter, designer of lamps, and bohemian. She was one of the last of the first-generation modernists to ...

seems to have influenced Bunting in his later move from London to Paris. After travelling in Northern Europe, Bunting left the London School of Economics without a degree and went to France. There, in 1923, he became friendly with

, who years later would dedicate his ''Guide to Kulchur'' (1938) to both Bunting and

, "strugglers in the desert". Between February and October 1927, Bunting wrote articles and reviews for '' The Outlook'', and then became its music critic until the magazine ceased publication in 1928. Bunting's poetry began to show the influence of the friendship with Pound, whom he visited in

Rapallo Rapallo ( , , ) is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, located in the Liguria region of northern Italy. As of 2017 it had 29,778 inhabitants. It lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, on the Tigullio Gulf, between Portofino and Chiav ...

, Italy, and later settled there with his family from 1931 to 1933. He was published in the Objectivist issue of ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'' magazine, in the ''Objectivist Anthology'', and in Pound's ''Active Anthology''. In the 1930s, Bunting became interested in medieval Persian literature, studied the language to some degree, and began publishing adaptations of Persian poems by Ferdowsi,

Manuchehri Abu Najm Aḥmad ibn Qauṣ ibn Aḥmad Manūčihrī ( fa, ابونجم احمد ابن قوص ابن احمد منوچهری دامغانی), a.k.a. Manuchehri Dāmghānī (fl. 1031–1040), was an eleventh-century court poet in Persia and in the ...

, Sa’di,

Hafez Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī ( fa, خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمّد حافظ شیرازی), known by his pen name Hafez (, ''Ḥāfeẓ'', 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325–1390) and as "Hafiz", ...

, and Obayd Zakani; their use of sound patterning seems to have influenced his own. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Bunting served in British Military Intelligence in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. After the war, in 1948, he left government service to become the correspondent for ''The Times of London'', in Iran. He married a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

woman, Sima Alladadian, who was thirty years his junior. Because of his marriage to the underage girl, Bunting was fired from the British embassy. Back in Newcastle, he worked as a journalist on the ''Evening Chronicle'' until his rediscovery during the 1960s by young poets, notably

Tom Pickard Tom Pickard (born 1946, Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is a poet, and documentary film maker who was an important initiator of the movement known as the British Poetry Revival. Biography Pickard grew up in the working-class suburbs of Cowgate, Ne ...

and Jonathan Williams, who were interested in working in the

tradition. In 1966, he published his major long poem, '' Briggflatts'', named after the village in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

where he is now buried in the Quaker graveyard. In later life he published ''Advice to Young Poets'', beginning "I SUGGEST / 1. Compose aloud; poetry is a sound." Bunting died in 1985 in Hexham, Northumberland. The Basil Bunting Poetry Award and Young Person's Prize, administered by Newcastle University, are open internationally to any poet writing in English.

Briggflatts

Divided into five parts and noted for its intricate use of sound and resonances with medieval literature, ''Briggflatts'' is an autobiographical long poem, 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 Bloodaxe Eric Haraldsson ( non, Eiríkr Haraldsson , no, Eirik Haraldsson; died 954), nicknamed Bloodaxe ( non, blóðøx , no, Blodøks) and Brother-Slayer ( la, fratrum interfector), was a 10th-century Norwegian king. He ruled as King of Norway from ...

. The critic

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine '' Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote '' Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which comb ...

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. Eliot's ''

Four Quartets ''Four Quartets'' is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published over a six-year period. The first poem, ''Burnt Norton'', was published with a collection of his early works (1936's ''Collected Poems 1909–1935''). After a f ...

''".

Portrait bust of Basil Bunting

Basil Bunting sat in Northumberland for sculptor

Alan Thornhill Alan Thornhill (1921 – March 4, 2020) was a British artist and sculptor whose long association with clay developed from pottery into sculpture. His output includes pottery, small and large scale sculptures, portrait heads, paintings and dr ...

, 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 Foundation The 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 a gift from the arti ...

's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and the terracotta remains in the collection of the artist. The 1973 portrait is displayed in the Burton (2014) biography of Bunting.

In popular culture

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler (born 12 August 1949) is a British singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Scotland and raised in England, he was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits. He pursued a s ...

wrote a song, titled 'Basil', about his time as a Saturday afternoon

copy boy A copy boy is a typically young and junior worker on a newspaper. The job involves taking typed stories from one section of a newspaper to another. According to Bruce Guthrie, the former editor-in-chief of the '' Herald Sun'' who began work ther ...

on the Newcastle '' Evening Chronicle'' when Bunting worked there. The song was recorded for Knopfler's 2015 album '' Tracker''.

Books

* 1930: '' Redimiculum Matellarum'' (privately printed) * 1950: ''Poems'' (Cleaners' Press, 1950) revised and published as ''Loquitur'' (Fulcrum Press, 1965). * 1951: ''The Spoils'' * 1965: ''First Book of Odes'' * 1965: ''Ode II/2'' * 1966: ''Briggflatts: An Autobiography'' * 1967: ''Two Poems'' * 1967: ''What the chairman Told Tom'' * 1968: ''Collected Poems'' * 1972: ''Version of Horace'' * 1991: ''Uncollected Poems'' (posthumous, edited by Richard Caddel) * 1994: ''The Complete Poems'' (posthumous, edited by Richard Caddel) * 1999: ''Basil Bunting on Poetry'' (posthumous, edited by Peter Makin) * 2000: ''Complete Poems'' (posthumous, edited by Richard Caddel) * 2009: ''Briggflatts'' (with audio CD and video DVD) * 2012: ''Bunting's Persia'' (translations by Basil Bunting, edited by Don Share) * 2016: ''The Poems of Basil Bunting'' (posthumous, edited, with intro and commentary by Don Share) * 2022: ''Letters of Basil Bunting'' (selected and edited by Alex Niven)

References

Notes

External links

*
Basil Bunting Poetry CentreBasil Bunting Home Page at EPC, Buffalo
recording read by the author

Richard Caddel's Introduction to ''Complete Poems''
Review of ''Complete Poems''Basil Bunting Finding Aid, Miami University LibrariesOn Bunting and Apophasis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunting, Basil 1900 births 1985 deaths Objectivist poets English conscientious objectors Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne People educated at Ackworth School People educated at Leighton Park School People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne Alumni of the London School of Economics English Christian pacifists 20th-century English poets Presidents of the Poetry Society