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Penguin Modern Poets, Series I #10
The Mersey Sound; Penguin Modern Poets 10
Irreverent, sardonic, funny and sad, these are the poems that echo the mood of the Sixties.
The Mersey Sound is a selection of the early work of three of Britain's best known poets of the late 20th century. Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten were part of the 'pop-poetry' movement of the Sixties. Innovative in both form and style, they revolutionized the traditional boundaries of the genre, bringing poetry down from the dusty shelf and onto the street.
The Mersey Sound is a selection of the early work of three of Britain's best known poets of the late 20th century. Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten were part of the 'pop-poetry' movement of the Sixties. Innovative in both form and style, they revolutionized the traditional boundaries of the genre, bringing poetry down from the dusty shelf and onto the street.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
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387 people want to read
About the author
Adrian Henri
50 books10 followersLiverpool poet and artist, Adrian Henri, is famous for his contribution to the ‘Liverpool Sound’ in the nineteen-sixties, when he led the poetry/rock group Liverpool Scene. Since then he has been a freelance poet, painter, singer, songwriter and lecturer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
September 23, 2024
I first stumbled across this as a poetry-phobic teenager and was knocked out by it. I had no idea people wrote poems about chip shops, comic book heroes, motorways, petrol-pump attendants, bus conductors, casual sex, supermarkets and nuclear Armageddon. If this was poetry where had my teachers been hiding the stuff all these years?
The Liverpool poets - Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten - occupied the space between the library and the street. They introduced new vocabulary and subject matter to poetry and collapsed the false distinction between the serious and the entertaining. They wrote poems of everyday life transfigured by the surreal and rendered magical and hallucinatory. The Mersey Sound was first published in 1967 and is infused with the optimistic spirit of the ‘60s counterbalanced by a characteristically sardonic Scouse humour. It immediately sold in large quantities, the initial print run of 20,000 selling out within three months, and is now one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all-time. It brought new audiences to poetry and led to a revival in public readings which continues to this day.
Although they shared common ground each of the poets had his own distinctive voice within it. Adrian Henri was also a painter and his poetry has a strong visual aspect and sense of place. Liverpool is a frequent setting, albeit a Liverpool reimagined in his own image and populated by his heroes: Père Ubu walks down Lime Street and Proust dips madeleine butties in his tea in the Kardomah cafe. His endlessly allusive poems wander freely over the cultural landscape, oblivious to distinctions between elite and popular art, and expressing a sensibility that is not so much populist as culturally omnivorous: John Milton, French symbolists, Charles Mingus, the TV Times, Handel, Wilson Pickett, cut-ups and collage, pop art and imagism, T. S. Eliot and talking blues - they’re all grist to Henri’s poetic mill. There is a generous and expansive spirit to his poetry, along with an unguarded intimacy. Chunks of autobiography nestle among the cultural references and experience and art become reflections of each other. His work exemplifies the joyously boundary-breaking cultural moment these poets came out of. At his best, he is my favourite of the three.
The brilliant Stevie Smith admired Brian Patten’s work, and gave readings with him, but described Roger McGough as a mere ‘rhymester’. A curious mistake given that her own wonderful poems were often dismissed in much the same terms. McGough’s poetry is undeniably eager to please, full of wit and wordplay, and he is the embodiment of poet as entertainer, but the glittering surface conceals a sober core. His subject matter is almost unremittingly bleak: terminal illness, war, senility, loneliness, sudden death, and the end of the world. He has a rare ability to write poems on political and social themes without sounding remotely preachy. In many ways McGough has always been a tragedian masquerading as court jester.
Brian Patten was the youngest of the three. Rather astonishingly, he was just twenty-one when this was published, which might account for a certain unevenness. His best poems, however, are outstanding and quite unlike anything by the other two: lyrical, elegiac and mysterious creations whose possible meanings reverberate in the mind.
Adrian Henri sadly died in 2000 and Brian Patten seems to have gone quiet in recent years. Roger McGough is still very much in evidence, though, and has recently published his collected poems. Many people, like myself, discover this book in adolescence, and I have a suspicion there are those who think the Liverpool poets are something you should eventually leave behind, along with other teenage obsessions, as you move onto the ‘proper’ grown-up stuff. I must admit I never have left them behind. Dipping into this anthology recently I found many of the poems as playfully inventive, funny, original and moving as I ever did. This is poetry which touched the people other poets couldn’t reach.
The Liverpool poets - Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten - occupied the space between the library and the street. They introduced new vocabulary and subject matter to poetry and collapsed the false distinction between the serious and the entertaining. They wrote poems of everyday life transfigured by the surreal and rendered magical and hallucinatory. The Mersey Sound was first published in 1967 and is infused with the optimistic spirit of the ‘60s counterbalanced by a characteristically sardonic Scouse humour. It immediately sold in large quantities, the initial print run of 20,000 selling out within three months, and is now one of the bestselling poetry anthologies of all-time. It brought new audiences to poetry and led to a revival in public readings which continues to this day.
Although they shared common ground each of the poets had his own distinctive voice within it. Adrian Henri was also a painter and his poetry has a strong visual aspect and sense of place. Liverpool is a frequent setting, albeit a Liverpool reimagined in his own image and populated by his heroes: Père Ubu walks down Lime Street and Proust dips madeleine butties in his tea in the Kardomah cafe. His endlessly allusive poems wander freely over the cultural landscape, oblivious to distinctions between elite and popular art, and expressing a sensibility that is not so much populist as culturally omnivorous: John Milton, French symbolists, Charles Mingus, the TV Times, Handel, Wilson Pickett, cut-ups and collage, pop art and imagism, T. S. Eliot and talking blues - they’re all grist to Henri’s poetic mill. There is a generous and expansive spirit to his poetry, along with an unguarded intimacy. Chunks of autobiography nestle among the cultural references and experience and art become reflections of each other. His work exemplifies the joyously boundary-breaking cultural moment these poets came out of. At his best, he is my favourite of the three.
The brilliant Stevie Smith admired Brian Patten’s work, and gave readings with him, but described Roger McGough as a mere ‘rhymester’. A curious mistake given that her own wonderful poems were often dismissed in much the same terms. McGough’s poetry is undeniably eager to please, full of wit and wordplay, and he is the embodiment of poet as entertainer, but the glittering surface conceals a sober core. His subject matter is almost unremittingly bleak: terminal illness, war, senility, loneliness, sudden death, and the end of the world. He has a rare ability to write poems on political and social themes without sounding remotely preachy. In many ways McGough has always been a tragedian masquerading as court jester.
Brian Patten was the youngest of the three. Rather astonishingly, he was just twenty-one when this was published, which might account for a certain unevenness. His best poems, however, are outstanding and quite unlike anything by the other two: lyrical, elegiac and mysterious creations whose possible meanings reverberate in the mind.
Adrian Henri sadly died in 2000 and Brian Patten seems to have gone quiet in recent years. Roger McGough is still very much in evidence, though, and has recently published his collected poems. Many people, like myself, discover this book in adolescence, and I have a suspicion there are those who think the Liverpool poets are something you should eventually leave behind, along with other teenage obsessions, as you move onto the ‘proper’ grown-up stuff. I must admit I never have left them behind. Dipping into this anthology recently I found many of the poems as playfully inventive, funny, original and moving as I ever did. This is poetry which touched the people other poets couldn’t reach.
November 14, 2023
My Grandad was an evacuee from Liverpool. Some bureaucratic cock-up sent him to a family in Aberystwyth that spoke minimal English. He spoke no Welsh. Somehow it all turned out well - he stayed, married, had two kids, and opened a barber's on Eastgate Street.
The night he retired, my brother and I were tasked with clearing out all the old magazines under the chairs. It was a large pile - he never threw anything away. Some of the comics were still priced in shillings. We even found a copy of Rolling Stone from the early 70s, perhaps left by an American student decades before and forgotten. The last thing to be picked up was a paperback. It was this book.
'Who were the Mersey Sound?' I asked Grandad. I assumed they'd been a band.
His thick, woolly eyebrows knitted together for a moment, then parted again.
'A bunch of twps [dimwits]. Throw the tatty thing away.'
I never did read it. Now I have. So have entire generations of readers - over a million copies have been sold to date.
When people speak of the Liverpool Poets even today, arguments often follow. Opinions about their achievement seem to rest - quite literally - on where you stand. In my experience, if you pronounce 'bath' as 'barth' you probably think they were talentless louts cashing in on the Beatles' success; prolier-than-thou forefathers of Performance Poetry. If you pronounce it 'bath' you're likely to see them as a breath of fresh air and hell-bent on mending the ruined bridge between poetry and the reading public.
They must have seemed radical at the time. The poets’ subjects were jazz, having a good time, girlfriends, fish and chip shops, bus conductresses, coffee bars and dotty aunts. Many poems, especially Adrian Henri’s, read like unfinished songs. Songs and poems are similar, but they’re not the same. Poems needs to work on the page before they can work their magic anywhere else. I rate Henri the least, though 'Love is' stands out.
Roger McGough is by far the most polished poet and has the widest range. His work rarely larks about and is that rare thing in British poetry - genuinely moving. Two poems, 'Sad Aunt Madge' and 'Snipers' (He knows damn well he's still at war / just that the snipers aren't Japs anymore') are wonderful. They tell a story; they immerse you deftly yet completely in ordinary lives. 'Let Me Die a Youngman's Death' has attained proverbial status in Britain. If a classic is a work that endures, then this poem outdoes Ian Hamilton's entire life's work.
Brian Patten is the most knowing poet, which rarely plays to his advantage. It's interesting to note how his better poems, like 'A Talk with a Wood' and 'Travelling between Places’ are also his simplest, and value feeling over second-guessing.
Were the Liverpool Poets necessary? I think so. Were they a new direction or a cul-de-sac? Mostly the latter. Did they write at least some poems that move, that have lasted? Absolutely.
The night he retired, my brother and I were tasked with clearing out all the old magazines under the chairs. It was a large pile - he never threw anything away. Some of the comics were still priced in shillings. We even found a copy of Rolling Stone from the early 70s, perhaps left by an American student decades before and forgotten. The last thing to be picked up was a paperback. It was this book.
'Who were the Mersey Sound?' I asked Grandad. I assumed they'd been a band.
His thick, woolly eyebrows knitted together for a moment, then parted again.
'A bunch of twps [dimwits]. Throw the tatty thing away.'
I never did read it. Now I have. So have entire generations of readers - over a million copies have been sold to date.
When people speak of the Liverpool Poets even today, arguments often follow. Opinions about their achievement seem to rest - quite literally - on where you stand. In my experience, if you pronounce 'bath' as 'barth' you probably think they were talentless louts cashing in on the Beatles' success; prolier-than-thou forefathers of Performance Poetry. If you pronounce it 'bath' you're likely to see them as a breath of fresh air and hell-bent on mending the ruined bridge between poetry and the reading public.
They must have seemed radical at the time. The poets’ subjects were jazz, having a good time, girlfriends, fish and chip shops, bus conductresses, coffee bars and dotty aunts. Many poems, especially Adrian Henri’s, read like unfinished songs. Songs and poems are similar, but they’re not the same. Poems needs to work on the page before they can work their magic anywhere else. I rate Henri the least, though 'Love is' stands out.
Roger McGough is by far the most polished poet and has the widest range. His work rarely larks about and is that rare thing in British poetry - genuinely moving. Two poems, 'Sad Aunt Madge' and 'Snipers' (He knows damn well he's still at war / just that the snipers aren't Japs anymore') are wonderful. They tell a story; they immerse you deftly yet completely in ordinary lives. 'Let Me Die a Youngman's Death' has attained proverbial status in Britain. If a classic is a work that endures, then this poem outdoes Ian Hamilton's entire life's work.
Brian Patten is the most knowing poet, which rarely plays to his advantage. It's interesting to note how his better poems, like 'A Talk with a Wood' and 'Travelling between Places’ are also his simplest, and value feeling over second-guessing.
Were the Liverpool Poets necessary? I think so. Were they a new direction or a cul-de-sac? Mostly the latter. Did they write at least some poems that move, that have lasted? Absolutely.
December 25, 2012
Still my favourite collection of poetry that's ever been published. To be read aloud or enjoyed privately there's a depth of love and warmth to all of these poems. Humour flows through nearly every piece and drapes the collection in the joi de vivre the period they were composed in so espoused. There's something slightly beyond that however, a slightly hungover, world-weary need. I think that, and the presence of the city, is often overlooked in these poems. But I can't really expand more on how much I love this set of poems. Poetry for the masses.
July 17, 2017
There is a poem in this collection that sums it perfectly fine, "Me", by Adrian Henri. It stars with the question "If you weren't you, who would you like to be?", and, after a list of dozens of artists, ends up saying "last of all me".
June 26, 2020
Three poets publishing in the 60s with all the flavour of John Lennon. Here are the beginnings of three of their poems:
"Love is feeling cold in the back of vans
Love is a fanclub with only two fans
Love is walking holding paintstained hands
Love is"
- 'Love is', Adrian Henri
"sometimes
i feel like a priest
in a fish & chip queue
quietly thinking
as the vinegar runs through
how nice it would be
to buy supper for two"
- 'Vinegar', Roger McGough
"On a horse called autumn
among certain decaying things
she rides inside me, for
no matter where I move
this puzzled woman sings
of nude horsemen, breeched
in leather,"
- 'On a Horse Called Autumn', Brian Patten
Well then, how about these excerpts? -
"Prostitutes in the snow in Canning St like strange erotic snowmen
And Marcel Proust in the Kardomah eating Madeleine butties dipped in tea."
- 'Liverpool Poems', Adrian Henri
"for in the morning
when a policeman
disguised as the sun
creeps into the room
and your mother
disguised as birds
calls from the trees
you will put on a dress of guilt
and shoes with broken high ideals
and refusing coffee
run
alltheway
home."
- 'Comeclose and Sleepnow', Roger McGough
"Or when I'm 104
& banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
& fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
& throw away every piece but one."
- 'Let Me Die a Youngman's Death', Roger McGough
"So they did,
Right there among the woodbines and guinness stains,
And later he caught a bus and she a train
And all there was between them then
was rain."
- 'Party Piece', Brian Patten
Humour, chaos, sex, nostalgia, youth, poverty, and endless wit.
"Love is feeling cold in the back of vans
Love is a fanclub with only two fans
Love is walking holding paintstained hands
Love is"
- 'Love is', Adrian Henri
"sometimes
i feel like a priest
in a fish & chip queue
quietly thinking
as the vinegar runs through
how nice it would be
to buy supper for two"
- 'Vinegar', Roger McGough
"On a horse called autumn
among certain decaying things
she rides inside me, for
no matter where I move
this puzzled woman sings
of nude horsemen, breeched
in leather,"
- 'On a Horse Called Autumn', Brian Patten
Well then, how about these excerpts? -
"Prostitutes in the snow in Canning St like strange erotic snowmen
And Marcel Proust in the Kardomah eating Madeleine butties dipped in tea."
- 'Liverpool Poems', Adrian Henri
"for in the morning
when a policeman
disguised as the sun
creeps into the room
and your mother
disguised as birds
calls from the trees
you will put on a dress of guilt
and shoes with broken high ideals
and refusing coffee
run
alltheway
home."
- 'Comeclose and Sleepnow', Roger McGough
"Or when I'm 104
& banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
& fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
& throw away every piece but one."
- 'Let Me Die a Youngman's Death', Roger McGough
"So they did,
Right there among the woodbines and guinness stains,
And later he caught a bus and she a train
And all there was between them then
was rain."
- 'Party Piece', Brian Patten
Humour, chaos, sex, nostalgia, youth, poverty, and endless wit.
November 25, 2021
i think it says quite a bit that i've come back after 3 days to write a review of this poetry collection...
if nothing else, it's very representative of the time and place in which it was written, and i can imagine that it reflects the experience of my mum's parents, who would have been in their 20s and living in liverpool at the time this was published. it makes me feel strangely emotional for that, and reminds me that i would love to go back to liverpool and ormskirk and connect a bit with my roots haha. for that, i applaud it, and i do understand its cultural impact.
with that being said...i take issue with henri (not least because i know of his character outside of this collection). his world-weariness fails to balance the line between artistry and pretentiousness, and the majority of the works are juvenile and derivative. that, and his obsession with teenage schoolgirls, and innocence, made me feel deeply uncomfortable, and i genuinely don't understand how we can revere poems that are so openly problematic.
i vastly preferred patten and mcgough's work - i found it more intelligent, more nuanced. there were still moments where i wondered at the way that they talk about women - innocent, sweet, untouched - that were an unpleasant reminder of the male gaze, but overall i appreciated their work much more. not my favourite poetry i've ever read, but not the worst.
if nothing else, it's very representative of the time and place in which it was written, and i can imagine that it reflects the experience of my mum's parents, who would have been in their 20s and living in liverpool at the time this was published. it makes me feel strangely emotional for that, and reminds me that i would love to go back to liverpool and ormskirk and connect a bit with my roots haha. for that, i applaud it, and i do understand its cultural impact.
with that being said...i take issue with henri (not least because i know of his character outside of this collection). his world-weariness fails to balance the line between artistry and pretentiousness, and the majority of the works are juvenile and derivative. that, and his obsession with teenage schoolgirls, and innocence, made me feel deeply uncomfortable, and i genuinely don't understand how we can revere poems that are so openly problematic.
i vastly preferred patten and mcgough's work - i found it more intelligent, more nuanced. there were still moments where i wondered at the way that they talk about women - innocent, sweet, untouched - that were an unpleasant reminder of the male gaze, but overall i appreciated their work much more. not my favourite poetry i've ever read, but not the worst.
July 19, 2013
I read this on a recent trip to Liverpool when I had some time to sit in between the two cathedrals on Hope Street, where I think Roger McGough had a flat once.
It's a fine collection of poems that reflect the vibrant and sometimes slightly bizarre minds of their creators. I guess at the time of writing Henri, Patten and McGough were still trying to find themselves as much as they were trying to, not define, but capture a glimpse of the vibe of the late sixties in the place where so much of British pop culture began.
I only wish more of the poems could have found themselves onto a Scaffold record.
It's a fine collection of poems that reflect the vibrant and sometimes slightly bizarre minds of their creators. I guess at the time of writing Henri, Patten and McGough were still trying to find themselves as much as they were trying to, not define, but capture a glimpse of the vibe of the late sixties in the place where so much of British pop culture began.
I only wish more of the poems could have found themselves onto a Scaffold record.
May 16, 2023
First published in the 60s.
This is an interesting read, with some cracking poems (and a few that are so-so). Mostly accessible and full of humour. Those scousers, eh?
There are a few references to young girls that would raise an eyebrow nowadays - not quite Stranglers "Bring on the nubiles" but heading in the same direction.
This is an interesting read, with some cracking poems (and a few that are so-so). Mostly accessible and full of humour. Those scousers, eh?
There are a few references to young girls that would raise an eyebrow nowadays - not quite Stranglers "Bring on the nubiles" but heading in the same direction.
May 21, 2018
I picked up on this collection after the BBC4 documentary Sex, Chips & Poetry.
I'm pleased to say that I am a firm fan of Roger McGough and have a newfound appreciation of Brian Patten but am sorry to say Adrian Henri does nothing for me.
While McGough and Patten are thoughtful and droll in their respective verse, I found Henri's writing brash, stilted in its list formats and creepy in its portrayal of schoolgirls.
That being said, generally the shorter pieces had greater impact while the longer poems almost lost me entirely.
All in all though I can see why The Mersey Sound was so influential in getting poetry back in vogue and am pleased to find some of the verse timeless even half a decade on.
Notable Poems
Adrian Henri - Galactic Lovepoem - I love the idea of reaching out and switching planets off.
Roger McGough - My Busconductor - such a sad circumstantial story in verse.
Brian Patten - Interruption at the Opera House - the frantic beginning gripped me and the social ending made me smile.
I'm pleased to say that I am a firm fan of Roger McGough and have a newfound appreciation of Brian Patten but am sorry to say Adrian Henri does nothing for me.
While McGough and Patten are thoughtful and droll in their respective verse, I found Henri's writing brash, stilted in its list formats and creepy in its portrayal of schoolgirls.
That being said, generally the shorter pieces had greater impact while the longer poems almost lost me entirely.
All in all though I can see why The Mersey Sound was so influential in getting poetry back in vogue and am pleased to find some of the verse timeless even half a decade on.
Notable Poems
Adrian Henri - Galactic Lovepoem - I love the idea of reaching out and switching planets off.
Roger McGough - My Busconductor - such a sad circumstantial story in verse.
Brian Patten - Interruption at the Opera House - the frantic beginning gripped me and the social ending made me smile.
April 6, 2019
Well what can I say about this collection of poems? Other than reading this is half a day of my life I'm never getting back, not much.
Being dyslexic has meant that I've always had to work hard to try to understand poetry, the rhyme, rhythm and meter is often difficult for me to fully grasp. It's meant that poetry has always been my least favourite literary form. That said I've always tried to read at least one book of poetry a year as I've always felt that whilst I may not always get it I should at least try.
So when I saw this in Waterstones I thought I would give it a go. I was aware of McGough (who isn't) but didn't really know of either Henri or Patten so this was a walk into the unknown for me.
Boy do I wish I'd left this on the bookshelf. I really don't see how this collection ever became "one of the best selling poetry anthologies of all time". Most of the poetry is infantile and reminiscent of what a 15 year old might have written.
To say that everything here is bad though would be unfair as there are some enjoyable and thought provoking poems (particularly Henri's Me and Tonight at Noon and Mcgough's A Square Dance) but there are far too few of them to really make this anything more than a grind to read.
Will I give poetry another go? Possibly, but not for a while after this.
Being dyslexic has meant that I've always had to work hard to try to understand poetry, the rhyme, rhythm and meter is often difficult for me to fully grasp. It's meant that poetry has always been my least favourite literary form. That said I've always tried to read at least one book of poetry a year as I've always felt that whilst I may not always get it I should at least try.
So when I saw this in Waterstones I thought I would give it a go. I was aware of McGough (who isn't) but didn't really know of either Henri or Patten so this was a walk into the unknown for me.
Boy do I wish I'd left this on the bookshelf. I really don't see how this collection ever became "one of the best selling poetry anthologies of all time". Most of the poetry is infantile and reminiscent of what a 15 year old might have written.
To say that everything here is bad though would be unfair as there are some enjoyable and thought provoking poems (particularly Henri's Me and Tonight at Noon and Mcgough's A Square Dance) but there are far too few of them to really make this anything more than a grind to read.
Will I give poetry another go? Possibly, but not for a while after this.
October 23, 2018
Jelikoz se mi z Perecovych kokotin uz otaci belmo v dulku, rozhodl jsem se, ze to prolozim nejakou poezii, abych si zastimuloval moje intelektualni qvanktum.
Vetsinou me poezie nechava chladnym a tak kdyz se chci zahrat, spis sahnu po dece nebo si stoupnu k topeni. Tentokrat tomu ovsem bylo jinak. Mersey Sound je sbirka tri basniku z FC Liverpool a prej se ji prodalo kolem milionu kusu. To je, jen pro predstavu, milionkrat vic nez jeden kus. Zprvu jsem byl neduverivy, jako kdyz jegrmeister nekde stoji 28kc, ale me podezreni na nesmysl bylo liche. Vsichni tri basnici to vali za 8/10, pricemz Henri je asi nejvetsi svanda dudak, aka "love is a fanclub with only two fans."
8/10
Vetsinou me poezie nechava chladnym a tak kdyz se chci zahrat, spis sahnu po dece nebo si stoupnu k topeni. Tentokrat tomu ovsem bylo jinak. Mersey Sound je sbirka tri basniku z FC Liverpool a prej se ji prodalo kolem milionu kusu. To je, jen pro predstavu, milionkrat vic nez jeden kus. Zprvu jsem byl neduverivy, jako kdyz jegrmeister nekde stoji 28kc, ale me podezreni na nesmysl bylo liche. Vsichni tri basnici to vali za 8/10, pricemz Henri je asi nejvetsi svanda dudak, aka "love is a fanclub with only two fans."
8/10
April 26, 2022
The Mersey Sound features ‘The Liverpool Poets,’ - Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten. The book was published in 1967, contemporary with The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and helped define the era.
This is my review/discussion of one particular poem from the book, Brian Patten's wonderful 'Where Are You Now, Batman?':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gKaf...
This is my review/discussion of one particular poem from the book, Brian Patten's wonderful 'Where Are You Now, Batman?':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gKaf...
February 2, 2023
You can’t beat a Roger McGough poem - these unfortunately haven’t aged well, but the poems are still beautiful, this is great for dipping in & out of & instantly defines an era - very much of its time.
November 9, 2020
Earlier this year I reviewed John Cooper Clarke's Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt, and doubted that many youthful working class poets would write about daffodils. How wrong I was. Adrian Henri has a poem called The New, Fast Automatic Daffodils in The Mersey Sound, a collection first published in 1967. It also includes poems by Roger McGough and Brian Patten. All three are from Liverpool and are credited with helping democratise the arts in 1960s Britain.
I first came across this collection in the early 80s. Before that, I thought there were only two sorts of poem: the long ones such as I'd studied at school (Burns, Tennyson, Crabbe), or the humorous ones (Marriott Edgar). With the Liverpool Poets I discovered poetry could also be about things that were important to young, working class people. It can be both funny and sad, candid, explicit, and recognizable.
When I first read the book I underlined titles of poems I really liked. My taste was for the popular ones, and through the years I've returned to these favourites and never given the others a chance. This time I've taken time to read more deeply and discovered new poems. I was also struck by individual writers' themes. Most of Adrian Henri's poems are about love, relationships, and sex, whereas Roger McGough often talks about war and the nuclear threat that was so urgent post WW2. Brian Patten's work is more varied and in the 80s I found none of his that really appealed. After reading them in the 21st century I've highlighted five. Perhaps in another few years there'll be more.
I'm not going to quote passages from all my favourite poems here, just a couple of lines from Adrian Henri's Tonight at Noon.
It just goes to show that daffodils still loom large in poetry.
Here's my list of favourite old and new titles.
ADRIAN HENRI
1983
Adrian Henri's Talking After Christmas Blues
Without You
2020
Tonight at Noon
Love is...
The New 'Our Times'
Galactic Lovepoem
The New, Fast, Automatic Daffodils
ROGER MCGOUGH
1983
Aren't We All
Let Me Die a Youngman's Death
2020
Comeclose and Sleepnow
Sad Aunt Madge
My Busseductress
Discretion
There's Something Sad
At Lunchtime
BRIAN PATTEN
2020
Little Johnny's Confession
Party Piece
Where Are You Now, Batman?
Song for Last Year's Wife
Come into the City Maud
I first came across this collection in the early 80s. Before that, I thought there were only two sorts of poem: the long ones such as I'd studied at school (Burns, Tennyson, Crabbe), or the humorous ones (Marriott Edgar). With the Liverpool Poets I discovered poetry could also be about things that were important to young, working class people. It can be both funny and sad, candid, explicit, and recognizable.
When I first read the book I underlined titles of poems I really liked. My taste was for the popular ones, and through the years I've returned to these favourites and never given the others a chance. This time I've taken time to read more deeply and discovered new poems. I was also struck by individual writers' themes. Most of Adrian Henri's poems are about love, relationships, and sex, whereas Roger McGough often talks about war and the nuclear threat that was so urgent post WW2. Brian Patten's work is more varied and in the 80s I found none of his that really appealed. After reading them in the 21st century I've highlighted five. Perhaps in another few years there'll be more.
I'm not going to quote passages from all my favourite poems here, just a couple of lines from Adrian Henri's Tonight at Noon.
Tonight at noon
[...]
The first daffodils of autumn will appear
When the leaves fall upwards to the trees
It just goes to show that daffodils still loom large in poetry.
Here's my list of favourite old and new titles.
ADRIAN HENRI
1983
Adrian Henri's Talking After Christmas Blues
Without You
2020
Tonight at Noon
Love is...
The New 'Our Times'
Galactic Lovepoem
The New, Fast, Automatic Daffodils
ROGER MCGOUGH
1983
Aren't We All
Let Me Die a Youngman's Death
2020
Comeclose and Sleepnow
Sad Aunt Madge
My Busseductress
Discretion
There's Something Sad
At Lunchtime
BRIAN PATTEN
2020
Little Johnny's Confession
Party Piece
Where Are You Now, Batman?
Song for Last Year's Wife
Come into the City Maud
June 9, 2024
This is actually not the edition I have just read. My edition was the Revised and Expanded Penguin edition from 1974 with a picture of an electric guitar on the cover. I have no idea if the contents are the same as this featured edition but I suspect they are a little different, as the book has been updated several times over the years.
Of the three poets included, I was already familiar with Roger McGough and Brian Patten. But Adrian Henri was a new name to me. I enjoyed all three sections and most of the poems in the anthology. I believe that McGough comes out on top overall, his work is smooth, funny, poignant at times and he has a very original voice.
Patten is very good but sometimes a little too cryptic and dour for my taste. His poems were the ones that baffled me the most often.
Henri is also very good but he has dated less well than the other two, the sixties clings to his work like glue (also he seems obsessed with schoolgirls, which considering he was in his thirties at the time he wrote these poems doesn't look too good in the modern era). Nonetheless he is often funny, quirky and occasionally fierce.
A groundbreaking anthology that is still very readable.
Of the three poets included, I was already familiar with Roger McGough and Brian Patten. But Adrian Henri was a new name to me. I enjoyed all three sections and most of the poems in the anthology. I believe that McGough comes out on top overall, his work is smooth, funny, poignant at times and he has a very original voice.
Patten is very good but sometimes a little too cryptic and dour for my taste. His poems were the ones that baffled me the most often.
Henri is also very good but he has dated less well than the other two, the sixties clings to his work like glue (also he seems obsessed with schoolgirls, which considering he was in his thirties at the time he wrote these poems doesn't look too good in the modern era). Nonetheless he is often funny, quirky and occasionally fierce.
A groundbreaking anthology that is still very readable.
January 16, 2017
Since this anthology was originally published 50 years ago this year, I thought I would at long last get around to reading this charity shop purchase. It was forged in the decade I was born in, and so the culture around it was in the background as I grew up, but the Belfast of my childhood was primarily shaped by the political troubles rather than pop culture, and despite supporting one of its Liverpool's two football teams all my life it is a city I don't know at all. But the similar industrial and cultural histories of Liverpool and Belfast, only separated by the Irish Sea and a childhood memory of Roger McGough and The Scaffold singing Lily the Pink, suggested I might find an easy way in to the poetry within its pages, and whilst the language and cultural references were accessible, too much of all three poets' contributions were disappointingly adolescent in tone, or more worryingly spoke of a prolonged adolescence, obsessed with nubile young women. The poems aren't without merit, but sadly nothing here will live on in my memory as long as Lily the Pink.
February 4, 2020
Published in the same year as fellow Liverpudlians The Beatles released the “Magical Mystery Tour” double E.P. which came on the heels of their landmark “Sergeant Pepper’s”, Liverpool in the 60s was certainly a city bursting with culture and creativity. A lot of this hasn’t dated well at all and is very much a product of its time and place, which is both its strength and weakness. No doubt it would bring warm, floods of nostalgia rushing back for those who were there and remember, but for younger generations or people not from the UK this could be a real head scratching puzzle.
Henri’s efforts seem to be nothing more than a collection of forgettable, mediocre musings which remind me of something you’d find scrawled inside the notes of a school pupil’s jotter. Patten’s contributions appear rambling, lengthy and unsatisfying. I would say that Roger McGough on the other hand is a cut above the rest. In particular the likes of “A Square Dance” really hit home and made for good value, but apart from that I didn’t find anything particularly notable or special about this collection.
July 1, 2018
For those of us who were born too late, this anthology conveys the mood of Liverpool in the 60s, a happening period for popular music, visual arts, literature and performance.
Refreshing iconoclastic, the Merseybeats performed poetry in pubs. Their poems dealt with everyday experiences in the 60s, they spoke the language of the times. I guess we owe a great debt to the Mersey poets for breaking a host of cultural taboos on what could and could not be put into poetry.
The subjects dealt with veer all over the place, from tales of young love, concerns of a nuclear apocalypse to Biffo the Bear and Batman and Robin. Humour is mixed with melancholy and dystopia. Quite a few of the poems make use of contemporary song forms.
I look forward to reading more poetry from both before and after the 60s and probably only then will I be able to fully appreciate the influence of the Mersey poets and this book.
Refreshing iconoclastic, the Merseybeats performed poetry in pubs. Their poems dealt with everyday experiences in the 60s, they spoke the language of the times. I guess we owe a great debt to the Mersey poets for breaking a host of cultural taboos on what could and could not be put into poetry.
The subjects dealt with veer all over the place, from tales of young love, concerns of a nuclear apocalypse to Biffo the Bear and Batman and Robin. Humour is mixed with melancholy and dystopia. Quite a few of the poems make use of contemporary song forms.
I look forward to reading more poetry from both before and after the 60s and probably only then will I be able to fully appreciate the influence of the Mersey poets and this book.
April 13, 2021
This seminal bit of subversive pop poetry from the plastic 60's is a little bit of a timewarp - celebrated as the gateway drug for the great British performance poets of the decades afterwards and making McGough at least a bit of a household name. I don't often read poetry anthologies and it was sincerely wonderful to sink into one - each of the three has a very different voice which is lovely. Henri - quite silly, quite musical, quite melancholy - McGough, witty, weighty and winsome (my favourite I think) and Patton whose dense and rather ponderous poems didn't sit well with me at all but taken together they compliment each other rather well. It does feel old though and the male gaze is strong here - and Henri's lustful schoolgirl adventures in particular feel quite sinister. Aside from that though - it's nice to dip the face into some reflective verse from the distant swinging sixties in these troubled times.
January 14, 2009
a good 'starter' book of British poets.
August 5, 2019
A representative selection of some very fine poetry.
November 7, 2016
Every generation has poetry that it considers its own. As a teenager growing up in Cardiff, this was the volume that felt like it was mine: poppy, edgy at times, accessible and anti-establishment, like the music of The Beatles, Lennon, Dylan, Bowie or the soon-to-follow punk explosion (though gentler and less abrasive than the latter). I revelled in the sensational surrealism of Adrian Henri, the wit of Roger McGough, wasn't quite sure what to make of the less showy Brian Patten. Of course, we had other poets - Eliot, Dylan Thomas and so on - but they belonged to everyone. These belonged to us.
Forty years on, McGough is the avuncular voice of poetry on Radio 4, Henri is no longer with us, and Patten still writes for both adults and children.
Revisiting these familiar works, I find my teenage preferences have reversed. Henri now looks showy, sensationalist, capable of great lines and striking images ('I Want To Paint'), but also of naive political posturing. His obsession with teenage schoolgirls - now that I'm no longer a teenage schoolboy - seems more than a little creepy. McGough's witty lyrics have fared, or dated, better, I think: 'You and Your Strange Ways' is still disturbing; 'My busconductor', 'At lunchtime' and 'Sad Aunt Madge' tell everyday stories with humour, empathy and pathos; 'Why Patriots Are A Bit Nuts In The Head' tempers polemic with Goonish humour. I had forgotten the short poem 'On Picnics' which is concise but brilliant in its treatment of First World War remembrance.
But it is Patten's understated lyricism that I now find most nourishing (my teenage mind found it slightly boring, to be honest). Poems like 'Party Piece', 'Travelling Between Places' or 'Room' tell oddly haunting stories, where the reader's imagination fills in the gaps between words and images. There's humour there ('The River Arse') and politics too, but a poem like 'Schoolboy' feels resonant, sparsely emotional, authentic ... Hinting at the depression that 'The Beast' spells out more explicitly, and with brutal honesty.
Forty years on, McGough is the avuncular voice of poetry on Radio 4, Henri is no longer with us, and Patten still writes for both adults and children.
Revisiting these familiar works, I find my teenage preferences have reversed. Henri now looks showy, sensationalist, capable of great lines and striking images ('I Want To Paint'), but also of naive political posturing. His obsession with teenage schoolgirls - now that I'm no longer a teenage schoolboy - seems more than a little creepy. McGough's witty lyrics have fared, or dated, better, I think: 'You and Your Strange Ways' is still disturbing; 'My busconductor', 'At lunchtime' and 'Sad Aunt Madge' tell everyday stories with humour, empathy and pathos; 'Why Patriots Are A Bit Nuts In The Head' tempers polemic with Goonish humour. I had forgotten the short poem 'On Picnics' which is concise but brilliant in its treatment of First World War remembrance.
But it is Patten's understated lyricism that I now find most nourishing (my teenage mind found it slightly boring, to be honest). Poems like 'Party Piece', 'Travelling Between Places' or 'Room' tell oddly haunting stories, where the reader's imagination fills in the gaps between words and images. There's humour there ('The River Arse') and politics too, but a poem like 'Schoolboy' feels resonant, sparsely emotional, authentic ... Hinting at the depression that 'The Beast' spells out more explicitly, and with brutal honesty.
March 5, 2023
I found this book through an odd source. After reading the amazing ‘Savage Detectives’ by Roberto Bolano I decided to rifle through the book and research the name checks primarily of other poets and many of them who wrote in Spanish and aren’t translated into English. He mentioned Adrian Henri who is British and I found this book available on ebay so I bought it.
The book itself has a great cover with fat orange letters spelling out ‘The Mersey Sound’ and the yellowed pages smell faintly of old lady perfume. Mersey is a river that runs through Liverpool England and the Mersey sound was a fusion of Beatles and American rock and roll. The poems in this collection feel very cheeky, slightly naughty, sometimes arty and often incredibly sexist but with the humor of boys will be boys that makes me cringe and remember that the Bohemians of that period were mostly men and saw women mainly as objects of desire.
It is also surprising how similar the poems are between the three men. However, Bolano was on to something with Henri who definitely wrote the most arresting poems of the group. Two of my favorites are ‘Tonight at Noon’ which has a world turned upside down feel of Donald Barthelme. I also really liked ‘Adrian Henri’s Last Will and Testament.’ Roger McGough’s M66 about the merciless march of progress seems both of its time and ours as well. Brian Patten’s ‘Where are you now Batman?’ captures the pop art moment of those times and reminds us that now we are saturated in it. A mixed bag but I enjoyed the time travel.
The book itself has a great cover with fat orange letters spelling out ‘The Mersey Sound’ and the yellowed pages smell faintly of old lady perfume. Mersey is a river that runs through Liverpool England and the Mersey sound was a fusion of Beatles and American rock and roll. The poems in this collection feel very cheeky, slightly naughty, sometimes arty and often incredibly sexist but with the humor of boys will be boys that makes me cringe and remember that the Bohemians of that period were mostly men and saw women mainly as objects of desire.
It is also surprising how similar the poems are between the three men. However, Bolano was on to something with Henri who definitely wrote the most arresting poems of the group. Two of my favorites are ‘Tonight at Noon’ which has a world turned upside down feel of Donald Barthelme. I also really liked ‘Adrian Henri’s Last Will and Testament.’ Roger McGough’s M66 about the merciless march of progress seems both of its time and ours as well. Brian Patten’s ‘Where are you now Batman?’ captures the pop art moment of those times and reminds us that now we are saturated in it. A mixed bag but I enjoyed the time travel.
March 30, 2024
This is one of the biggest selling books in modern English poetry, showing an anti-elitist attitude aimong to bring the art of the poet in the age of the Beatles: everyday subjects, no inaccessible "poetic" language. Three poets are represented: Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, and Brian Patten. Of the three, Adrian Henri is by far the most dated, and indeed often rather distasteful, especially his obsession with "beautiful schoolgirls". Roger McGough is probably the best known today; his poetry is the most accessible of the three, with some humour. Brian Patten is the most academic, with a habit of joining words together for no good reason which is an irritation when reading. He does provide a manifesto of what the three of them were trying to do: "When the professor of literature steps into the shadow of a lectern / and when the students are finally seated / and the whispers have died away / poetry puts on an overcoat / and sick of threadbare souls, / steps out into the streets weeping." The essence of this is that poetry should be for everyone, part of their everyday life, not something which is difficult, academic, and boring: laudable aims, but the currency of the work at the time of original publication is such that some of the writing of each of the poets now seems old fashioned.
January 30, 2022
I bought this book after a long search for the poetry collection I once saw in a charity bookshop in Cambridge. I had snapped a picture of one poem, but of course forgotten the title and all other relevant information regarding the volume. A friend (Alex) guided me to this bookshop and so perhaps keeping up the search was more of a way to keep this memory. After 5 years I finally ended up at Adrian Henri and this volume, and so read three Liverpool poets one January afternoon.
For a serious rating and not just my memories of two weeks abroad; I’d give this book two stars. I enjoyed some of the poems (unfortunately the one of the picture (“who else?”) was not included, my search in vain!) and some gave an interesting perspective into a time and place I can only imagine. Some themes kept returning: plastic flowers. Still, I’d argue most really did not stand the test of time. There was a strange amount of references to superhero’s (Batman and Robin) and as many others have commented, inappropriate views on women and girls. I might go back to some of the poems, but mostly I will see this book as a sign for me to stop searching for whatever pocket I found that time in Cambridge.
For a serious rating and not just my memories of two weeks abroad; I’d give this book two stars. I enjoyed some of the poems (unfortunately the one of the picture (“who else?”) was not included, my search in vain!) and some gave an interesting perspective into a time and place I can only imagine. Some themes kept returning: plastic flowers. Still, I’d argue most really did not stand the test of time. There was a strange amount of references to superhero’s (Batman and Robin) and as many others have commented, inappropriate views on women and girls. I might go back to some of the poems, but mostly I will see this book as a sign for me to stop searching for whatever pocket I found that time in Cambridge.
November 15, 2022
I've read the 1975 reprint of the 74 second edition. Years ago - 1979, in fact - I read the 1967 first edition, a few poems of which were dropped in 74. More were added.
Lots of it hasn't dated well - Adrian Henri's lapses into sad lasciviousness for instance. And these days, the poems don't seem anything like as radical as they must have back then. But, in 67, they would have come as a refreshing change from the dry stuff that much of the first nine volumes of PMP show to have been characteristic of the poetry of the time. And there are a few poems here that have held up quite well. Definitely worth a look, even at this late stage.
Lots of it hasn't dated well - Adrian Henri's lapses into sad lasciviousness for instance. And these days, the poems don't seem anything like as radical as they must have back then. But, in 67, they would have come as a refreshing change from the dry stuff that much of the first nine volumes of PMP show to have been characteristic of the poetry of the time. And there are a few poems here that have held up quite well. Definitely worth a look, even at this late stage.
December 15, 2022
some great poems, very few bad ones
Poetry is of course subjective, and what I find good others will hate. I feel like I’ve timed my reading of this wrong, I’m too old for some of the poems to be vital, and too young to have heard most of the authors voices (if you get a chance do see Roger McGough). Much of what in contained in this book is timeless, I’m reading it well after the 50 year reprint and it still reads as the world today is, with the caveat that without the mass media and technology the imagery is firmly rooted in a smaller world than they may (or do) write about now.
Poetry is of course subjective, and what I find good others will hate. I feel like I’ve timed my reading of this wrong, I’m too old for some of the poems to be vital, and too young to have heard most of the authors voices (if you get a chance do see Roger McGough). Much of what in contained in this book is timeless, I’m reading it well after the 50 year reprint and it still reads as the world today is, with the caveat that without the mass media and technology the imagery is firmly rooted in a smaller world than they may (or do) write about now.
September 7, 2025
Some great poetry from 3 Scouse poets in the 60s. I especially liked the romance and anti-war poems from the collection. I think McGough's work was my fave of the 3 but there was loads that was enjoyable. My choice of the poems below!
Henri:
Tonight at noon
Love poem / colour supplement
McGough:
A lot of water has glown under your bridge
You and your strange ways
At lunchtime: a story of love
Icarus allsorts
Mother the wardrobe is full of infantrymen
Patten:
Sleep now
Song for last year's wife
A creature to tell the time by
Henri:
Tonight at noon
Love poem / colour supplement
McGough:
A lot of water has glown under your bridge
You and your strange ways
At lunchtime: a story of love
Icarus allsorts
Mother the wardrobe is full of infantrymen
Patten:
Sleep now
Song for last year's wife
A creature to tell the time by
May 14, 2021
This is a remarkable poetry collection. Remarkable in that I could actually understand almost every poem in it… And very often I could enjoy these poems – for their wit, sexiness, darkness, inventiveness. I loved all three poets included in the anthology, but McGough was my favorite, and not only because his obsession with buses greatly amused me... This book made me believe once again that poetry and I can have some sort of pleasurable coexistence.
October 14, 2018
Five stars for Andrian Henri and his poems (anybody who writes a poem about Batman and performs it to music wins extra points from me!) but just two stars from me for Roger McGough and Brian Patten's poems. This compilation was definitely a product of its time and place.
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