Written in 1965, Basil Bunting’s great verse-epic is one of the most important poems of the twentieth-century. This day course will explore Bunting’s masterpiece by reading it against the poet’s Northumbrian heritage, his Quaker upbringing, and his remarkably peripatetic adult life, split between Paris, Italy, the Middle-East and North-East England. We will also consider how Briggflatts draws on Bunting’s wide knowledge of multiple poetic traditions, his friendship with modernists such as Ezra Pound, and how the poem has influenced subsequent generations of writers.
Tutor: Stephen Grace BA MA
Term: Summer
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 26 April 2025
Time: 10am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £57
Location: University of York Campus, Classroom-based
