John Betjeman John Betjeman 1906 - 1984 Sir John Betjeman was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972-1984 and was a notable poet, writer, and broadcaster. His more famous works include Mount Zion (1932), Continual Dew (1937), Old Lights for New Chancels (1940), New Bats in Old Belfries (1945), A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954), Poems in the Porch (1954), Summoned by Bells (1960), High and Low (1966), and A Nip in the Air (1974). /var/www/vhosts/jamescumminsbookseller.com/httpdocs/manager/custom/tpl.search.results.empty.php John Betjeman - Wikiquote John Betjeman Jump to: navigation , search History must not be written with bias , and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.

Sir John Betjeman CBE ( 28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984 ) was an English poet, architectural conservationist and broadcaster. He was the British Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984. Contents Quotes[ edit ] The test of an abstract picture, for me, is not my first reaction to it, but how long I can stand it hanging on the wall of a room where I am living. John Piper (Penguin Books, 1944), p. 12. History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side. First and Last Loves (1952). Hymns are the poetry of the people. Radio Talk: BBC Radio (4 July 1975) Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music.[ citation needed ] There are two things you need for a jolly good hymn. The first is a set of words that expresses the mood or sentiment of the worshipper.

The second—and perhaps even more important—is a good tune … with a simple popular melody.[ citation needed ] One mark of good verse is surprise. Radio Talk. BBC Radio 4 (2 August 1978) Topography is one of my chief themes in my poetry...about the country, the suburbs and the seaside...then there come's love...and increasingly, the fear of death. Radio Talk. BBC Third Programme (1949) I ought to warn you that my verse is of no interest to people who can think. Radio Talk. BBC Third Programme (1949) Saint Pancras was a fourteen-year old Christian boy who was martyred in Rome in AD 304 by the Emperor Diocletian. In England he is better known as a railway station. Ghastly Good Taste, or a Depressing Story of the Rise and Fall of English Architecture. Title and sub-title of book (1933) Saint Pancras was a fourteen-year old Christian boy who was martyred in Rome in AD 304 by the Emperor Diocletian. In England he is better known as a railway station.

London's Historic Railway Stations (1973) Yes, I haven't had enough sex. In an interview for the television documentary Time With Betjeman (February 1983), having been asked whether he had any regrets. As quoted in: Ned Sherrin, Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations , Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 286 Betjeman, John, 1906-1984 - Credo Reference Topic Page: Betjeman, John, 1906-1984 Definition: Betjeman, Sir John from Philip's Encyclopedia English poet. Traditional in form, accessible in sentiment, and often apparently parochial in his concern with English social and domestic life, the seriousness and accomplishment of Betjeman's poetry has often been obscured by its popularity. His Collected Poems (1958; rev. 1962) was a bestseller. Poet Laureate from 1972, Betjeman was also a broadcaster and idiosyncratic architectural critic.

Summary Article: Betjeman, [Sir] John from Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature As a poet, Betjeman was never likely to influence the mainstream of poetic practice in Britain. Never a disciple of MODERNISM, Betjeman adopts the stance of entertainer on a search for faith, fighting despair, yet showing a deep love of the human comedy. He comes across in the tone of voice in his poetry that is highly observant of people and their architectural surroundings. Betjeman chooses traditional verse forms including rhymed quatrains, blank verse, couplets and cites Alfred, Lord TENNYSON, George CRABBE, R. S. Hawker, Ernest DOWSON, Thomas HARDY, James Elroy FLECKER, Thomas MOORE, and Hymns Ancient and Modern as his models, choosing his meters to fit the themes at hand. Betjeman was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Marlborough College, then at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1925, but he left without a degree. He began his career as a schoolteacher in 1929 and after that worked in various jobs as editor, film critic, book reviewer, and columnist.

His work in broadcasting in the 1950s was very successful as were the sales of his poetry, and he was able to campaign effectively on behalf of threatened architectural gems, particularly of the Victorian period. He famously saved St. Pancras station from demolition. He was awarded a long list of prizes and honorary degrees, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1960, the year he was knighted. Despite Betjeman’s incredible success with his Collected Poems (1958), which sold over a million copies, the academic world has frequently held him in contempt as a middle-class writer, working for a mass audience and going against the dictum that demanded that all poetry should be difficult or obscure. In short, he was rejected as a frivolous populist, refusing the serious anger of the mid-20th-c. writers or the modernist road. But Philip LARKIN championed Betjeman for this very reason, in that Betjeman seemed to have reestablished the link between poet and public, sweeping aside the hurdles of exegesis erected by the academic establishment. Betjeman’s poetry remained rooted directly in what he felt and believed about life.

Betjeman’s success is testimony to the great affection in which he continues to be held by his admirers. His first publications Mount Zion (1931) and Continual Dew (1937) already show the highly crafted qualities that Betjeman came to perfect in his later work. The latter volume contains some poems reprinted from the former, like “Hymn.” It also contains one of his most thematically characteristic poems, “The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel,” and “Slough” with its notorious first line: “Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!” The blurb inside Continual Dew claims that “The verse is nostalgic and designed for those who appreciate Sunday in a provincial town, the subtleties of high, low and broad churchmanship, gaslit London, bottle parties in the suburbs, civil servants on the hike, and half-timbered houses on the Southern Electric.” This sums up the nature of Betjeman’s poetical interests in the vanished interwar world.

Ghastly Good Taste (1933) was the first of a series of books on architecture, where Betjeman took against both the horrors of the modern and sham antiquarianism in building trends. He followed this with a long list of publications delineating his pet interests and crusading for the issue of conservation, such as English Cities and Small Towns (1943), The English Town in the Last Hundred Years (1956), English Churches (1964), Victorian and Edwardian London from Old Photographs (1969), London’s Historical Railway Stations (1972), and Metroland (1977). From the 1940s onward, Betjeman’s poetry began to gain that status that it still enjoys.

He was moved to write poems because of what he called his “topographical predilection.” Old Lights for New Chancels (1940) contains the extremes of HUMOR from “Pot Pourri from a Surrey Garden” to the horrific meditation upon death and decay in memory of his father “On the Portrait of a Deaf Man.” This poem recalls the private fears of the poet and also shows the shocks that he can at times deliver. New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) contains more famous works like “A Subaltern’s Love Song” and the tonally beautiful and languidly paced “Youth and Age on Beaulieu River, Hants,” poetry about church bells, the strikingly Gothic “A Lincolnshire Tale,” and “Parliament Hill Fields” one of his best-known poems. Betjeman had moved on considerably from his earlier work and was clearly inhabiting Betjeman country with supreme confidence and skill.

A Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) makes up the triad of publications containing classic Betjeman including the overwhelming encounters with womanhood in “The Licorice Fields at Pontefract” and “The Olympic Girl,” the anxious horror of “Devonshire Street W.1,” the near-metaphysical “Late-Flowering Lust” and the satirical comedy of “Hunter Trials.” Summoned by Bells (1960) is Betjeman’s foray into lengthy blank verse autobiography up to his teaching years, set in nine sections, where he tells us that “For myself/I knew as soon as I could read and write/That I must be a poet.” Critical reactions were mixed—John WAIN loathed it, Larkin loved it, and it remains a daring venture, recalling the practice of poetic forefathers, suffering from dull patches, but remaining, as Patrick Taylor-Martin says “an interesting fragment.” Betjeman’s poetic output continued with High and Low (1966) and a Nip in the Air (1974), which found their way into successive editions of the Collected Poems.

But Betjeman’s best and most enduring work had already been done. His canon has been vastly augmented and promoted by audio material, recordings which began in 1961, of his readings of poetry, the lively Betjeman’s Banana Blush (1974) with music by Jim Parker, and video compilations such as The Lost Betjemans recorded between 1962 and 1964. Bibliography Betjeman, J., Collected Poems (2000); Hillier, B., Young Betjeman (1988); Taylor-Martin, P., J. B., His Life and Work (1983) Christopher John P. Smith MLA Smith, C. J. P. (2006). Betjeman, -LSB-Sir-RSB-John. In S. Serafin, & V. G. Myer (Eds.), Continuum encyclopedia of British literature. London, UK: Continuum. Retrieved from Smith, Christopher John P. "Betjeman, [Sir] John." In Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, edited by Steven Serafin, and Valerie Grosvenor Myer.

Continuum, 2006. Smith, C.J.P. (2006). Betjeman, -LSB-Sir-RSB-John. In S. Serafin & V.G. Myer (Eds.), Continuum encyclopedia of British literature. [Online]. London: Continuum. Available from: [Accessed 18 January 2017]. Smith, Christopher John P. "Betjeman, [Sir] John." Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, edited by Steven Serafin, and Valerie Grosvenor Myer, Continuum, 2006. Credo Reference, Accessed 18 Jan 2017. Images John Betjeman | Poetry Foundation Poetry Foundation 1906–1984 Mark Gerson John Betjeman, poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death in 1984, was known by many as a poet whose writing evoked a sense of nostalgia. He utilized traditional poetic forms, wrote with a light touch about public issues, celebrated classic architecture, and satirized much of contemporary society for his perception of its superficiality.

"Modern 'progress' is anathema to him ... ," Jocelyn Brooke wrote in Ronald Firbank and John Betjeman prior to Betjeman's death: "though fortunately for us [he] is still able to laugh." Brooke continued: "Perhaps [Betjeman] can best be described as a writer who uses the medium of light verse for a serious purpose: not merely as a vehicle for satire or social commentary, but as a means of expressing a peculiar and specialized form of aesthetic emotion, in which nostalgia and humour are about equally blended." Betjeman's poetry was considered something of a phenomenon: it was read by a large audience and was also praised by literary critics. As Ralph J. Mills pointed out in Descant, "Betjeman is a phenomenon in contemporary English literature, a truly popular poet. The sudden fame won by his Collected Poems . . . brought him a wide reputation and made him quickly into a public personality." Betjeman was also admired by such poets and critics as Edmund Wilson and W. H. Auden , who dedicated his own The Age of Anxiety to his fellow poet.

"Certainly it is very rare in our day to see much accord between distinguished critics and poets on the one hand and the general public on the other," Mills would add; "but the very complexity of Betjeman's personality and feelings beneath the skillful though apparently simple surface of his verse probably unites, in whatever different kinds of levels of appreciation, the otherwise remote members of his audience." 1958's Collected Poems first brought Betjeman into the popular limelight. Displaying the poet's skillful use of nineteenth-century poetic models, the collection was enthusiastically received by many critics. A Times Literary Supplement reviewer, for example, stated that Betjeman's poems were "a pleasant change from the shapeless and unarticulated matter . . . offered us by so many of his contemporaries. For Mr. Betjeman is a born versifier, ingenious and endlessly original; his echoes of Tennyson and Crabb, Praed and Father Prout, are never mere pastiche; and he is always attentive to the sound of his words, the run of his lines, the shape of his stanzas." T. J.

Ross, however, found that although "his ear is as flawless as Tennyson's and his effects sometimes as remarkable, Betjeman creates a world which, unlike the Victorians', is a miniature." Ross believed that when Betjeman involved the reader completely with his subject "the result [was] poor." Only when he kept the reader at a distance did he bring his work up to the level of "first-rate minor art." But Louise Bogan had high praise for Betjeman's work: "His verse forms, elaborately varied, reproduce an entire set of neglected Victorian techniques, which he manipulates with the utmost dexterity and taste. His diction and his observation are delightfully fresh and original. And it is a pleasure to let down our defenses and be swept along by his anapaestic lines, with their bouncing unstressed syllables, and to meet no imperfect or false rhymes in the process; to recognize sentiment so delicately shaded, so sincerely felt, that it becomes immediately acceptable even to our modern sensibilities, grown used to the harsh, the violent, and the horrifying." In Summoned by Bells, Betjeman recreates his personal past in richly-detailed poems.

Because the poet was able to recreate so accurately the time and place of his own childhood, Mills attributed to Betjeman "an almost Proustian memory." Walter Allen, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called Summoned by Bells an autobiography. But the collection, Allen explained, "can't be judged simply as the equivalent of an autobiographical novel. Whatever the final verdict on it may be, it is an extraordinarily accomplished, sustained exercise in narrative verse." Philip Larkin , in his review of the book for the Spectator, found that, although all the poems in the collection tell the poet's life story, Betjeman "is not an egoist: rather, he is that rare thing, an extrovert sensitive. . . . [Time] and again in scenes where interest might be expected to focus on the author's feelings we find it instead shifting to the details." Larkin concludes that "Betjeman has an astonishing command of detail, both visual and circumstantial." The poems from both High and Low and A Nip in the Air were included in the fourth edition of Betjeman's Collected Poems.

Larkin, writing in his introduction to the volume, explained that Betjeman was a difficult poet for many critics to approach. "Betjeman," he explained, "constitutes a kind of distorting mirror in which all our critical catch-phrases appear in gross unacceptable parody. He is committed, ambiguous, and ironic; he is conscious of literary tradition (but quotes the wrong authors); he is a satirist (but on the wrong side); he has his own White Goddess (in blazer and shorts). And he has done all those things such as forging a personal utterance, creating a private myth, bringing a new language and new properties to poetry, and even . . . giving poetry back to the general reader, all equally undeniably, yet none of them in quite the way we meant. No wonder our keen critical tools twitch fretfully at his approach." Additional verses, which Betjeman had chosen to omit from previous volumes and which some critics noted were of uneven quality, were collected as Uncollected Poems. This work was published in 1982, two years before the poet's death.

While noting in a review of the work for the London Sunday Times that Uncollected Poems contained some "duds," John Carey added that it also included "poems no sensible reader will miss. The best of them touch on dying, that undying Betjeman bug-bear. Whatever his relations with contemporary life, he is unchallengeably the laureate of contemporary death, and has traced, in poem after poem, its horribly normal advance from the preliminary twinge . . . to the fatal X-ray photographs and the hospital bed, conveniently placed for you to hear your relatives, in the car park below, making off cheerily to tea and telly." A sociable man who developed numerous close friendships with a variety of people over the years, Betjeman wrote many letters. His voluminous correspondence was collected in the two-volume Letters, published posthumously beginning in 1994. Edited by his daughter, Candida Lycett Green, Letters traces the poet's life through two periods: 1926 through 1951, and 1951 through 1984, the year of Betjeman's death.

"Somewhere in these two thick volumes," friend and critic Mark Girouard commented in the Times Literary Supplement, "John Betjeman remarks that he wrote letters in order to avoid writing poems. . . . To write letters . . . so that the reading of them brings the writer into the room with one, is a rare gift, but Betjeman certainly had it." In the London Review of Books, Patricia Beer commented on the element of humor that runs throughout the collected Letters. Listing the poet's "apparatus of mirth" as "Oirish imitations, babytalk, spoof signatures, rustic voices, rebus writing, caricatures, doodles and so on," Beer noted that "it too often sounds as though it needed oiling. . . Some will in any case find the jollity very much to their taste. Those who do not will have many and various sorts of seriousness, even melancholy, to choose from in this protean collection." Besides writing and editing several works on architecture, throughout his life Betjeman remained passionately involved in architectural preservation efforts.

As he told Willa Petschek, he was most interested "in saving groups of buildings of towns that can be ruined by 'a single frightful store that looks like a drive-in movie. The only way to prevent more and more ugly buildings going up . . . is to draw people's attention to what's good in all periods.'" Betjeman made numerous appearances on television to promote preservation and became, as Petschek maintained, "a cherished national cult." Betjeman championed such causes in his poetry as well; he wrote lovingly of the places of his childhood, of the buildings and monuments in danger of destruction. "Betjeman's approach to architecture (which he values second only to poetry) enabled him to recognize the 'living force' of 19th-century buildings, especially the Victorian Gothic," Petschek noted. "Partly through his verse and topographical writings, his guidebooks, poetry readings and TV appearances, but also through his warmth and peculiar genius for imparting enthusiasm for everything from rood screens to ladies' legs, he has made the public accept a rapid reversal in taste." Bibliography Mount Zion; or, In Touch with the Infinite, James Press (London), 1931.

Continual Dew: A Little Book of Bourgeois Verse, J. Murray (London), 1937. (Under pseudonym Epsilon) Sir John Piers, Westmeath Examiner (Mullingar, Ireland), 1938. Old Lights for New Chancels: Verses Topographical and Amatory, J. Murray, 1940. New Bats in Old Belfries, J. Murray, 1945. Slick but Not Streamlined: Poems and Short Pieces, selected and with an introduction by W. H. Auden, Doubleday, 1947. Selected Poems, compiled and with an introduction by John Sparrow, J. Murray, 1948. St. Katherine's Church, Chiselhampton, Oxfordshire: Verses Turned in Aid of a Public Subscription towards the Restoration of the Church of St. Katherine, Chiselhampton [Chiselhampton], 1950. A Few Late Chrysanthemums: New Poems, Transatlantic, 1954. Poems in the Porch, S.P.C.K.

(London), 1954. Collected Poems, compiled and with an introduction by the Earl of Birkenhead, J. Murray, 1958, Houghton (Boston), 1959, 3rd enlarged edition published as John Betjeman's Collected Poems, J. Murray, 1970, Houghton, 1971, 4th edition, J. Murray, 1980. John Betjeman (selected poems), E. Hulton, 1958. Poems, Vista Books, 1960. Summoned by Bells (autobiography in verse), Houghton, 1960, new edition, J. Murray, 1976. A Ring of Bells, selected and with an introduction by Irene Slade, J. Murray, 1962, Houghton, 1963. High and Low, J. Murray, 1966, Houghton, 1967.

Six Betjeman Songs, with music by Mervyn Horder, Duckworth (London), 1967. A Nip in the Air, J. Murray, 1975, Norton (New York, NY), 1976. Betjeman in Miniature: Selected Poems of Sir John Betjeman, Gleniffer Press, 1976. Metro-land, Warren, 1977. The Best of Betjeman, selected by John Guest, J. Murray, 1978. Church Poems, J. Murray, 1981. Uncollected Poems, J. Murray, 1982. The Illustrated Summoned by Bells, J. Murray, 1994. The Illustrated Poems of John Betjeman, J. Murray, 1995. WORKS ON ARCHITECTURE Ghastly Good Taste; or, A Depressing Story of the Rise and Fall of English Architecture, Chapman & Hall (London), 1933, St. Martin's (New York City), 1971. An Oxford University Chest, illustrated by L.

Moholy-Nagy and others, J. Miles (London), 1938. Antiquarian Prejudice, Hogarth Press (London), 1939. Cities and Small Towns, Collins (London), 1943. English Cities and Small Towns, Collins, 1943. First and Last Loves, Musson (New York, NY), 1952. The English Town in the Last Hundred Years (Rede Lecture), Cambridge University Press, 1956. (Under pseudonym Richard M. Farren) Ground Plan to Skyline, Newman Neame (London), 1960. The City of London Churches, Pitkin Pictorials (London), 1965. Ten Wren Churches, illustrated by R. Beer, Editions Electo, 1970. A Pictorial History of English Architecture, Macmillan (New York City), 1972. London's Historic Railway Stations, Transatlantic, 1972. West Country Churches, Society of Sts. Peter and Paul, 1973.

In Praise of Churches, John Murray (London, England), 1996. EDITOR Cornwall Illustrated in a Series of Views, Architectural Press, 1934. (With Geoffrey Taylor) English, Scottish, and Welsh Landscape, 1700-c. 1860, Muller, 1944. Watergate Children's Classics, Watergate Classics (London), 1947. (With Taylor, and contributor) English Love Poems, Faber, 1957. An American's Guide to English Parish Churches, Including the Isle of Man, McDowell, Obolensky, 1958, published in England as Collins Guide to English Parish Churches, Collins, 1958, revised edition published as Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches, Volume 1: The North, Volume 2: The South, 1968. Altar and Pew: Church of England Verses, E. Hulton, 1959. (And author of introduction) Charles Tennyson Turner, A Hundred Sonnets, Hart-Davis, 1960, Dufour, 1961.

(With Winnifred Hindley) A Wealth of Poetry, Blackwell, 1963. (And author of introduction and commentaries) Victorian and Edwardian London from Old Photographs, Viking, 1969. (With David Vaisey) Victorian and Edwardian Oxford from Old Photographs, Batsford, 1971. (With J. S. Gay) Victorian and Edwardian Brighton from Old Photographs, Batsford, 1972. Also editor, with Rowse, of Victorian and Edwardian Cornwall from Old Photographs, 1974, and of John Masefield's Selected Poems, 1978. General editor of "Shell Guides" series, Architectural Press, 1934- 64. TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES The Stained Glass at Fairford, 1955. (With Stewart Farver) Pity about the Abbey, 1965. Metro-Land, 1973. A Passion for Churches, 1974. Vicar of This Parish, 1976. Betjeman's Dublin, 1979.

OTHER Shell Guide to Cornwall, Architectural Press, 1934, published as Cornwall Illustrated, Architectural Press, 1935, revised edition published as Cornwall: A Shell Guide, Faber, 1964. Devon Shell Guide, Architectural Press, 1936, revised edition, Faber, 1955. Vintage London, Collins, 1942. (And illustrator, with John Piper) Murray's Buckinghamshire Architectural Guide, J. Murray, 1948. (And illustrator, with Piper) Murray's Berkshire Architectural Guide, J. Murray, 1949. (With Piper) Shropshire: A Shell Guide, Faber, 1951. The English Scene: A Reader's Guide (includes reading list by L. Russell Muirhead), Cambridge University Press for the National Book League, 1951. (Illustrator) Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke, English Churches, London House & Markwell, 1964. A Plea for Holy Trinity Church, Sloan Street, Church Union, 1974.

John Betjeman's Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1980. Lord Mount Prospect, Tragara Press, 1981. Betjeman's Cornwall, J. Murray, 1984. The Golden Treasury of John Betjeman (recording), Spoken Arts, 1984. Betjeman's London, edited by Pennie Denton, J. Murray, 1988. John Betjeman: Letters, Methuen (London), edited by Candida Lycett Green, Volume 1: 1926-1951, 1994, Volume Two, 1951-1984, 1995. (With Paul Hogarth) In Praise of Churches, J. Murray, 1996. John Betjeman: Coming Home; an Anthology of His Prose 1920-1977, selected and introduced by Candida Lycett Green, Methuen (London), 1997. Recordings by the author of his own work include Poems, Argo, and Summoned by Bells, Argo.

Contributor to books, including, A Panorama of Rural England, edited by Walter James Turner, Chanticleer Press/Hastings House, 1944; The Englishman's Country, edited by Turner, Collins, 1945; Studies in the History of Swindon, [Swindon], 1950; Gala Day London, Harvill, 1953; The Twelfth Man, Cassell, 1971; and Likes and Dislikes: A Private Anthology, Tragara Press, 1981. Author of introduction to books, including Selected Poems, by Henry J. Newbolt, Nelson, 1940; William Purcell, Onward Christian Soldier, by William Purcell, Longmans, 1957. Book critic, Daily Telegraph, 1952, and Daily Herald (London); columnist, Spectator, 1954-58; film critic, London Evening Standard. MEDIA ADAPTATIONS: Donald Swann has set some of Betjeman's poems to music.

Further Readings Bogan, Louise, A Poet's Alphabet: Reflections on the Literary Art and Vocation, McGraw-Hill, 1970. Brooke, Jocelyn, Ronald Firbank and John Betjeman, Longmans, Green (New York, NY), 1962. Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit), Volume 2, 1974; Volume 6, 1976; Volume 10, 1979; Volume 34, 1985; Volume 43, 1987. Delaney, Frank, Betjeman Country, J. Murray, 1983. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 20: British Poets, 1914-1945, Gale, 1983. Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1984, Gale, 1985. A Garland for the Laureate: Poems Presented to Sir John Betjeman on His 75th Birthday, Celandine Press, 1981.

Hillier, Bevis, compiler, John Betjeman: A Life in Pictures, J. Murray, 1984. Hillier, Young Betjeman, J. Murray, 1988. Kermode, Frank, Puzzles & Epiphanies, Chilmark Press (New York City), 1962. Press, John, John Betjeman, Longman, 1974. Sparrow, John, Independent Essays, Faber, 1963. Stanford, Derek, John Betjeman: A Study, Spearman, 1961. Stapleton, Margaret L., Sir John Betjeman: A Bibliography of Writings by and about Him, Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ), 1974. Stem, Gladys, And Did He Stop and Speak to You, Regnery, 1958. Wain, John, Essays on Literature and Ideas, St. Martin's, 1963. PERIODICALS Arizona Quarterly, spring, 1963, pp. 37-49.

Book Collector, winter, 1992, pp. 477-97. Books and Bookmen, May, 1967. Book World, September 15, 1968. British Book News, February, 1983, p. 116. Christian Century, February 22, 1961; June 5, 1963. Commonweal, March 3, 1961. Contemporary Review, May, 1960, pp. 286-89; July, 1994, pp. 39-41; August, 1994, p. 107. Dalhousie Review, spring, 1976, pp. 112-24. Descant, spring, 1969. Horizon, April 13, 1946, pp. 221-38. Listener, January 26, 1967; May 23, 1985, pp. 20-1. London Magazine, March, 1967.

London Review of Books, December 8, 1994, pp. 22-3. Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1984, p. 7. New Statesman, December 3, 1960, p. 894; January 6, 1961; October 3, 1969. Newsweek, November 28, 1960. New Yorker, April 18, 1959; September 2, 1967; May 23, 1970. New York Herald Tribune Lively Arts, December 4, 1960. New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, September 14, 1947, p. 6. New York Review of Books, May 18, 1967, pp. 31-4. New York Times, October 11, 1972, p. 18. New York Times Book Review, November 27, 1960, pp. 5, 30; September 24, 1967, p.

57; December 7, 1969. New York Times Magazine, August 13, 1967. Observer (London), April 24, 1994, pp. 18-19. Poetry Review, summer, 1967. Punch, April 29, 1970. Review of English Studies, November, 1991, pp. 541-50. Spectator, October 8, 1954, pp. 443-44; December 2, 1960, p. 913; April 18, 1970; April 23, 1994, pp. 30-1. Sunday Times (London), May 20, 1984, p. 5. Time, February 2, 1959; December 5, 1960; October 23, 1972; December 4, 1972. Times (London), July 14, 1954, p.

10; October 11, 1972, p. 16; January 9, 1983, p. 43; May 22, 1984. Times Literary Supplement, December 12, 1958, p. 720; November 10, 1966; May 21, 1970; March 27, 1981, p. 335; December 10, 1993, p. 13; December 8, 1995, p. 8. Twentieth Century, February, 1959, pp. 130-37. Western Humanities Review, summer, 1973, pp. 289-94. Discover this poet's context and related poetry, articles, and media. Poems by John Betjeman History of John Betjeman by J Brooke John Betjeman by Jocelyn Brooke John Betjeman was born in 1906, the son of a well-off London merchant and manufacturer of Dutch origin whose firm had been established in 1820.

Betjeman's childhood was mainly spent in London; he was educated at Marlborough and Oxford, but left the University without a degree. He worked for a time as a schoolmaster, and during part of the second world war was United Kingdom Press Attache in Dublin. He had early begun to make a name for himself as a writer on architecture, and up till the late nineteen-thirties was probably better known as an expert upon (and champion of) the nineteenth-century Gothic revival than as a poet. His earliest book of verse, Mount Zion, appeared in 1933, but attracted little attention; his second, Continual Dew (1937), incorporated many of the poems in the previous volume, together with a number of new ones. With this book Betjeman became known, as a writer of verse, to a somewhat wider circle, though his public remained a small one. The book was bound in a quasi-'devotional' style, like an old-fashioned prayer-book, with imitation gilt clasps; in startling contrast was the surrealist dust-cover (by McKnight Kauffer) depicting a severed human hand protruding from what appeared to be a cabbage.

The pages were lavishly decorated with pastiches of Victorian designs, steel engravings, art nouveau, etc. Such details are worth mentioning only to suggest that Continual Dew was presented to the public as a humorous book: a fact which should perhaps be emphasized, in the light of Lord Birkenhead's later disclaimer, especially as the volume, in its original form, has long been out of print, though most of the verses have reappeared in the Collected Poems. Further volumes appeared at intervals during the next fifteen years: Old Lights for New Chancels (1940); New Bats in Old Belfries (1945); Selected Poems (1948), containing several new pieces, and with an appreciative introduction by John Sparrow, Warden of All Souls' College, Oxford; A Fete Late Chrysanthemums (1954). Betjeman's reputation as a poet, during this period, was still restricted to a fairly small band of admirers, and it was not till the appearance of Lord Birkenhead's collection, in 1958, that he achieved a sudden and, in the circumstances, astonishing celebrity.

This may have been partly due to a growing sophistication on the part of the reading public, but one cannot help suspecting that Mr. Betjeman's popularity as a television personality also played its part; so too perhaps did the poem 'How to get on in Society', a catalogue of social solecisms which, reprinted in a Sunday newspaper some years previously, had established him, along with Miss Nancy Mitford, as a kind of unofficial arbiter of elegance. Before examining Betjeman's verse, a word must be said about his prose works. These include, apart from various articles and reviews in magazines, Ghastly Good Taste (1934); An Oxford University Chest (1938); the 'Shell Guides' to Cornwall (1935) and Devon (1936); and First and Last Loves (1952), a collection of previously published essays. This latter volume should be read as a kind of concordance to or commentary upon the poems, on which it casts a revealing light. As a prose-writer Mr.

Betjeman has an offhand, conversational style, wholly unpretentious and excessively readable; he writes, indeed, almost exactly as he talks, and anyone who has heard him broadcast will know that, as a speaker, he has the virtue of being at once entirely self possessed and absolutely natural. « John Betjeman | Faber & Faber Faber & Faber Faber Members pay only £5.59 for this title. Sign up for free during checkout to get your discount. Qty: Published 02/03/2006 Length 112 pages About Book In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to the most important poets in our literature. Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984) was born in Highgate, the son of a manufacturer of Dutch descent. After university he joined the staff of the Architectural Review, thereafter working as a journalist and, during the Second World War, for various government departments.

His first book of poems was Mount Zion (1931), followed by numerous collections, notably A Few Late Chrysanthemeumns (1954). His poetry enjoyed immense popularity, as did his personality, and his knighthood in 1969 and appointment as Poet Laureate in 1972 were almost universally welcomed. About John Betjeman Poet and architectural critic, Sir John Betjeman was born in North London in 1906. He was taught by T S Eliot at Highgate Junior School and was rusticated from Magdalen College Oxford for failing Divinity. He published several poetry collections, including New Bats in Old Belfries and A Few Late Chrysanthemums, and several works on architecture. His Collected Poems was published in 1958 and the first edition sold over 100,000 copies. He was knighted in 1969 and appointed Poet Laureate in 1972. He died in Cornwall in 1984. More Info Edited By: Hugo Williams Hugo Williams was born in 1942 and grew up in Sussex.

He worked on the London Magazine from 1961 to 1970, since when he has earned his living as a journalist and travel writer. Billy's Rain won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1999. His Collected Poems was published by Faber in 2002 and his last collection, Dear Room, was published in 2006. He writes a freelance column for the TLS and lives in London. John Betjeman.com Contact Bibliography JB's output was extensive, and below is a basic list of his major works. For those wanting more, Bill Peterson's book (see the Shop ) provides as complete a list as there is likely to be. Those currently available can be bought via this web site, often at generous discounts - see the shop for details. Mount Zion (James Press, 1931) Facsimile reprint issued in 1975 (St.Martins Press U.S.) Continual Dew (John Murray, 1937) Facsimile reprint isssued in 1977.

Sir John Piers (Mullingar, 1938) 150 copies, issued under the name of "Epsilon" Old Lights For New Chancels (John Murray, 1940) New Bats In Old Belfries (John Murray, 1945) Slick, But Not Streamlined (Doubleday, US, 1947) Selected Poems (John Murray, 1948) Verses turned in aid of a public subscription toward the restoration of the church of St.Katherine, Chiselhampton, Oxon (Chiselhampton, 1952) Pamphlet A Few Late Chrysanthemums (John Murray, 1954) Poems In The Porch (SPCK 1954) Pamphlet Collected Poems (John Murray, 1958) John Betjeman: A Selection (Edward Hulton Pocket Poets, 1958) Paperback Summoned By Bells (John Murray, 1960) A Ring Of Bells (John Murray, 1962) High And Low (John Murray, 1966)

 Six Betjeman Songs (Duckworth, 1967) Pamphlet, with music by Mervyn Horder.

A Wembley Lad & The Crem (Poem of the Month Club, 1971) Signed Broadsheet. A Nip In The Air (John Murray, 1974) Betjeman in Miniature: Selected Poems (?, 1976) The Best Of Betjeman (John Murray, 1978) Church Poems (John Murray, 1981) Ode On The Marriage Of Charles And Diana(Warren Editions, 1981) Broadsheet, 125 copies.

Uncollected Poems (John Murray, 1982) Ah Middlesex (Warren Editions, 1984)Paperback 250 copies Betjeman's Cornwall (John Murray, 1984) Illustrated Poems (John Murray, 1995) With Illustrations by David Gentleman Faith and Doubt of John Betjeman - An Anthology of Betjeman's religious verse, edited by Kevin Gardner (Continuum 2005) Best Loved Poems of John Betjeman (John Murray 2006) Prose Ghastly Good Taste (Chapman & Hall, 1933) Revised version issued in 1970 (Anthony Blond). Cornwall Illustrated (Architectural Press, Shell Guide, 1934) Reissued by Faber in 1939, and revised as "Cornwall" in 1964. Devon (Architectural Press, Shell Guide, 1936) Reissued by Faber in 1939. An Oxford University Chest (John Miles, 1938).

Facsimile reprint issued in 1978 (SR Publishers) A Handbook On Paint (Silicate Paint Co., 1939) Pamphlet, with Hugh Casson. Antiquarian Prejudice (Hogarth Press, 1939) Pamphlet Vintage London (Collins, 1942) English Cities And Small Towns (Collins, 1943) John Piper (Penguin, 1944) Paperback Murray's Buckinghamshire Architectural Guide (John Murray, 1948) With John Piper. Murray's Berkshire Architectural Guide (John Murray, 1949) With John Piper. Shropshire (Faber, Shell Guide, 1951) The English Scene (National Book League, 1951) Pamphlet First And Last Loves (John Murray, 1952) The English Town In The Last Hundred Years (C.U.P., 1956) Rede Lecture pamphlet. Collins Guide to English Parish Churches (Collins, 1958) Revised edition, as two volume Pocket Guide, 1968.

Ground Plan To Skyline (Newman Neame, 1960) Under the name Richard M. Farran. English Churches (Studio Vista, 1964) With Basil Clarke. The City Of London Churches (Pitkin Pictorial, 1965) Paperback Victorian and Edwardian London From Old Photographs (Batsford, 1969) Ten Wren Churches (Editions Elector, 1970) 100 copies in folder. Victorian And Edwardian Oxford From Old Photographs (Batsford, 1971) With David Vaisey.

Victorian And Edwardian Brighton From Old Photographs (Batsford, 1972) With J.S.Gray London's Historic Railway Stations (John Murray, 1972) A Pictorial History Of English Architecture (John Murray, 1972) West Country Churches (Society of Saints Peter and Paul, 1973) Pamphlet Victorian And Edwardian Cornwall From Old Photographs (Batsford, 1974) With A.L.Rowse Archie And The Strict Baptists (John Murray, 1977) Metroland (BBC Publications, 1977) In Praise of Churches (John Murray 1996) with Paul Hogarth Coming Home (John Murray 1998) Trains and Buttered Toast - Selected Radio Talks, edited by Stephen Games (John Murray 2006) John Betjeman contributed to so many publications that a complete list will probably never appear. This list contains poems which were not published in his books.

The Heretick No.2 (Marlborough, 1924) Contains "Ye Olde Cottage" Public School Verse, An Anthology, Vol V(Heinemann, 1925) Contains "The Song Of A Cold Wind" Guyhirn Chapel Of Ease(Redundant Churches Fund, 1976) A short verse foreword. The Wind And The Rain, Spring 1947 Contributes "To My Son" The Barrier A novel by Robin Maugham, with five sonnets by JB. A Catalogue of Works by John Betjeman from the collection of Ray Carter With the poem "Dawlish". The Cornhill, January 1944 Contributes "Fragment of a poem for Emily Hemphill" The Wind And The Rain, Easter Book 1962 Contributes "Summer Poem", written when he was thirteen. Horizon, February 1945 Contributes "A Plain Course On The Bells".

Festival of Poetry, Souvenir Programme, 1963 Contributes "Tennyson" The Cornhill, Winter 1960 Contributes "Village Wedding" London Magazine, July/August 1970 Contributes "The P.R.O." Punch, 27 October 1954 Contributes "Who Will Help St.Pauls?" Punch, 14 October 1953 Contributes "A Frank Address to the Old School" John Betjeman - A Study by Derek Stanford (Neville Spearman, 1961) John Betjeman - His Life and Work by Patrick Taylor-Martin (Allen Lane, 1983) John Betjeman - A Life in Pictures by Bevis Hillier (John Murray, 1984) Young Betjeman by Bevis Hillier (John Murray, 1988) John Betjeman - New Fame, New Love by Bevis Hillier (John Murray 2003) John Betjeman - The Bonus of Laughter by Bevis Hillier (John Murray 2005) John Betjeman - The Biography by Bevis Hillier (John Murray 

2006).

An abridged version of Hillier's three-volume biography. Betjeman by A.N.Wilson (Hutchinson 2006) John Betjeman - Letters Vol 1 1926-1951 Edited by Candida Lycett-Green (Murray, 1994) John Betjeman - Letters Vol 2 1952-1984 Edited by Candida Lycett-Green (Murray, 1995) John Betjeman on Trains, edited by Jonathan Glancey (Methuen 2006) Audio John Betjeman made a number of recordings which have appeared in various formats over the years. The four CDs on the Virgin label were originally released on vinyl in the 1970's, and all feature JB reading his poetry over music by Jim Parker. Betjeman reads Betjeman (Argo 1037) Two cassettes, with twenty poems on one and extracts from Summoned by Bells on the other. Originally recorded in 1961. Summoned by Bells (BBC Radio Collection ZBBC 1249) Two cassettes.

John Betjeman - Poetry from the BBC Archives (BBC Radio Collection ZBBC 1650) Two cassettes containing fifty two poems. John Betjeman - Recollections from the BBC Archives (BBC Radio Collection ZBBC 2197) Two cassettes containing over two hours of interviews and broadcasts. Betjeman's Banana Blush (Virgin Records CASCD 1086) Late -Flowering Love (Virgin Records CASCD 1096) Betjeman's Britain (Virgin Records CASCD 1130) Varsity Rag (Virgin Records CASCD 1154) Poetry in Motion (Eagle Records) The first collection of JB's words set to music by Mike Read, performed by artists including David Essex, Alvin Stardust and Captain Sensible. Betjeman - Poets for Pleasure (Hodder & Staughton) Read by Nigel Hawthorne. A First Class Collection (BBC 2006) Video & DVD Very little of JB's television work is currently available, but a small number of his films have recently been released. Metroland (DD Home Entertainment 2006) - DVD.

The original BBC film, plus a number of short railway related films. Summoned By Bells [DD Home Entertainment 2007] - DVD. JB's tour of the places he grew up, as he reads his verse autobiography. A Passion for Churches [DD Home Entertainment 2007] - DVD. JB's film exploring life around the churches of Norwich and Norfolk. The Lost Betjemans (WH Smith Exclusive Video VA30337) Betjeman Revisited (WH Smith Exclusive Video VA30395) Between 1962 and 1964, JB made a series of films about towns in the West Country for HTV. These have been released on two videos. On the second tape, some of the original soundtracks were lost, and have been re-recorded by Nigel Hawthorne.

Branchline Railway (BBC Enterprises BRA01)(1987) Michael Palin introduces unique footage from the BBC archive: "Branchline Railway," with Sir John Betjeman, and two historic newsreel sequences: "Britannia Under Her Own Steam" and "Atlantic Coast Express" 10 Great John Betjeman Poems Everyone Should Read | Interesting Literature 10 Great John Betjeman Poems Everyone Should Read Posted by interestingliterature The best poems by John Betjeman – and some interesting facts about them Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984) was UK Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death, and became one of Britain’s best-loved poets of the twentieth century. When his Collected Poems was published in 1955, it was a bestseller. Below is our selection of Betjeman’s best poems, along with a short summary of each poem and a link to where you can read it. Do you agree with this list? We’ve arranged them in roughly chronological order, rather than attempting to rank them in a ‘best to worst’ or ‘worst to best’ order.

What would you pick as Betjeman’s best poem? ‘ Death in Leamington ‘. This was one of Betjeman’s first published poems, appearing in the 1932 volume Mount Zion, Betjeman’s first collection. It describes the lonesome death of an old lady in the English midlands spa town (presumably to suggest its ordinariness: death, like Larkin’s nothing , happens anywhere), and, even though it’s an early poem, it already displays Betjeman’s eye for small everyday details, such as the tea-things and the landlady turning down the gas in the hall. ‘ The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel ‘. This poem was published in Betjeman’s second volume of poems, Continual Dew, in 1937. As the title suggests, it describes Wilde’s arrest at the London hotel following his failed attempts to sue the Marquis of Queensberry for libel. Wilde would subsequently stand trial for ‘gross indecency’; he would be found guilty and condemned to two years’ hard labour. Watch out for the Cockney speech of the two plain-clothes arresting officers. ‘ Slough ‘.

The opening lines of this poem are probably Betjeman’s most famous. Like ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel’ it appeared in Continual Dew. Because of its blistering attack on the industrial trading estate that Slough became in the 1930s, many residents of the Berkshire town have objected to Betjeman’s tone in the poem, especially the notion that bombing Slough may be the best thing for it (it proved oddly ominous, since two years after the poem was published, when WWII broke out, Slough would be bombed by the Germans). Betjeman’s daughter publicly apologised for her father’s poem in 2006! ‘ In Westminster Abbey ‘. Published in 1940 in Betjeman’s third volume, Old Lights for New Chancels, ‘In Westminster Abbey’ reflects its wartime publication date. The poem pokes fun at the idea of believing oneself superior because one is a) upper-class, b) a good Christian woman, c) English, and d) white. Bomb the Germans, the speaker of the poem entreats while praying to God – but keep the English safe.

The poem is a fine example of how genteelly but powerfully satirical Betjeman could be. ‘ A Subaltern’s Love Song ‘. No list of Betjeman’s best poems would be complete without this. One of Betjeman’s best-loved poems, this is the ‘Miss J. Hunter Dunn’ one (its opening line is more famous than its actual title). Published in 1945 in Betjeman’s fourth collection, New Bats in Old Belfries, ‘A Subaltern’s Love Song’ is a love song of a peculiarly English kind. The Joan Hunter Dunn who inspired the poem was a real person , who died in 2008 – Betjeman met her during wartime in 1940 and was struck by her, and wrote ‘A Subaltern’s Love Song’ about what it might be like for the two of them to play tennis, fall in love, and get engaged (Betjeman was a married man when he wrote the poem, and the relationship with Miss J. Hunter Dunn remained a fantasy rather than a reality). A ‘subaltern’, by the way, is an officer in the British army below the rank of captain. ‘ Christmas ‘.

Betjeman wrote several poems about Christmas, and this one, from his 1954 volume A Few Late Chrysanthemums, is probably the best of them. Like Thomas Hardy ‘s ‘The Oxen’ (which, along with Betjeman’s poem, we include in our pick of the best Christmas poems ), Betjeman’s ‘Christmas’ sees the speaker of the poem yearning to believe in the story of the nativity. Betjeman (who was a Christian, though a doubting one) seems to conclude that it is true. ‘ How to Get On in Society ‘. This short poems sticks the knife into the pretentious world of the upper-middle classes. It appeared in A Few Late Chrysanthemums in 1954. Betjeman wrote ‘How to Get On in Society’ as part of a competition in Time and Tide magazine in December 1951, where Betjeman invited readers to write another stanza for the poem. A short analysis of the poem, along with a parody of Betjeman’s poem (which he proclaimed to be better than his own!), can be found here . ‘ Diary of a Church Mouse ‘.

A fine example of Betjeman’s Chaucerian style, ‘Diary of a Church Mouse’ (1954) is another piece of gentle mockery of a certain class of person – here, fair-weather Christians who use the church when it suits them but are nowhere to be seen for most of the year. Betjeman uses animals to make his point, and it’s not hard to see why this has become one of Betjeman’s most popular poems – it appeals to people of all ages, and even those who miss the satire. ‘ Archibald ‘. Archibald Ormsby-Gore was, according to Betjeman, the one person who never let him down. Archibald was also, famously, a teddy bear – and the inspiration for Sebastian Flyte’s teddy Aloysius in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. This poem reflects Betjeman’s fondness for his stuffed toy, and helps to explain why Betjeman became, for Britain, ‘the nation’s teddy bear’. Archibald, and Betjeman’s toy elephant Jumbo, were in his arms when he died in 1984. ‘ The Last Laugh ‘.

This short poem was written late in Betjeman’s life and reflects the mixture of tender melancholy and humour that pervade his other work, though there is a deeper awareness of death and (like his friend Philip Larkin) a terror of dying lurking behind the poem. We had to leave John Betjeman’s 1960 blank-verse autobiography, Summoned by Bells, off the list, but if you’ve feasted on the ten shorter poems listed above and are hungry for more of Betjeman’s quintessentially English loveliness, you can read Summoned by Bells, and all of his other best poems, in John Betjeman Collected Poems , published by John Murray. Image (top): John Betjeman Statue by Martin Jennings, St Pancras Station, London (author: Christine Matthews), Wikimedia Commons . Image (bottom): The John Betjeman Centre Memorabilia Room showing the office from his home in Trebetherick (author: Neil Kennedy), Wikimedia Commons . Share this:

Question: 'New Bats In Old Belfries' and 'Mount Zion' are works by which famous poet?
Answer: JOHN BETJEMAN