Well the centenary celebrations of his birth are coming up (Sir John Betjeman was born on 28th August 1906) and well deserved they are to.I am a fan of Betjeman's poetry, having come across them some twelve years ago (that long!) whilst studying my A'level lit. Favourites of mine include A Subaltern's Love Song and Diary of a Church Mouse and you can find more of his poems here.
Another reason I like him is because he was such a contrast to Ted Hughes, who I studied beforehand, and who I saw give a talk once at Westminster City Hall (a quiet man, but who brimmed with such mesmerising passion about his work that I couldn't help but compare his personality to that of Rasputin in terms of having a hypnotic effect). After all that, Betjeman was like a relaxing evening in front of the fire with a small coffee or whisky.
I am disapointed that he didn't get along with another of my heroes, C. S. Lewis. His tutor at Oxford who allegedly failed him his degree, but I can see how their personalities would not mix.
One of the things I do like about Betjeman was that he had an impish sense of humour. When interviewed a year before his death, he was asked if he had any regrets as he looked back over his life. His reply was "Yes. Not enough sex."
I hope the centenary celebrations will bring more readers forward to his writings, because they are worth reading and he does have a fan base which includes those who don't even like poetry in general.
2 comments:
He was terrific at capturing the absurdity of Englishness and had a highly developed sense of his own and other people's ridiculousness. I never tire of hearing A Shropshire Lad, though A Subaltern's Love Song is wonderful too. People complain that his poems are too "de-dum, de-dum, de-dum", but I think that aids readability.
Certainly, and it helped his popularity as well
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