Basil Bunting: Man and Poet (Hardcover)

Editor: Carroll F. Terrell

Publisher: National Poetry Foundation (1981)

Although the major poets of this century led by Pound insisted for forty years and more that Basil Bunting was a poet to be read and watched, few people except other poets paid much attention until 1966. In that year, after a long silence, Bunting gave us Briggflatts. This remarkable work demonstrates that Bunting is indeed a most discriminating and powerful poet: one who can distill the emotional wisdom of not only a lifetime but of centuries into a few lines. Briggflatts, a work of 740 lines in five parts, is not just to be read, described, criticized, or explicated. As someone said about the work of an earlier poet: "One does not read Homer. One experiences it." 

As with the work of all great poets, his poetry is not instantly accessible: too much music and meaning is concentrated into too few lines for that. In spite of this, not a single book that covers even the most important aspects of Bunting's life and work has heretofore been available. Basil Bunting: Man and Poet has been carefully designed to fill this urgent need. It is by no means intended to be the final word on a great poet; quite the contrary, it is designed to answer the first and most immediate questions of the crowd of new readers of Bunting, which the future will undoubtedly bring."