Poetry and performance : the Mersey poets, the international poetry incarnation and performance poetry

Gräbner, Cornelia (2015) Poetry and performance : the Mersey poets, the international poetry incarnation and performance poetry. In: The Cambridge companion to British poetry since 1945 :. Cambridge Companions to Literature . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9781107462847

Abstract

In this chapter I look at the emergence of countercultural performance poetry in Britain in the 1960s. The chapter introduces the poetry performance and its main characteristics. I then engage in greater detail with the work of the Mersey Poets during the 1960s as part of a countercultural scene embedded in the culture of Liverpool; with the International Poetry Incarnation in London as a specific event which was crucial to the emergence of the 'London Underground'; and end on a reflection on how the poetry performance invites a 'listening differently' - an invitation that we still need to fully take it up on.