Briggflatts

Bunting visited Brigflatts as a schoolboy when the family of one of his schoolfriends lived there, and it was at this time that he developed a strong attachment to his friend's sister, Peggy Greenbank, to whom the poem is dedicated.

It was first read in public on 22 December 1965 in the medieval Morden Tower, part of Newcastle town wall, and published in 1966 by Fulcrum Press.

Eliot’s Four Quartets by influential critics, including Thom Gunn and Cyril Connolly, and in the US it was taken up by a younger generation of poets, such as Robert Creeley and Allen Ginsberg.

He cites the poem to show that free verse can include a rhyme scheme without following other conventions of traditional English poetry.

[8] In 2009 Bloodaxe published an edition of Briggflatts that included an audio recording Bunting made in 1967, and a DVD of Peter Bell’s 1982 film portrait of the poet.