Basil Bunting, Briggflatts

Glyn Pursglove (Swansea University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1966

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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Briggflatts

takes its name from a Quaker community and meeting house (dating from 1675), which Bunting first visited as early as 1912/13 as a schoolboy at Ackworth, a Quaker boarding-school in Yorkshire. The family home of a new schoolfriend, John Allen Greenbank, was at Briggflatts and Bunting was soon a visitor there, meeting Greenbank's family, including his sister Peggy. Bunting fell in love with Peggy. She and Briggflatts were to remain important presences in Bunting's mind for the rest of his life and were, in a sense, the 'occasion' of his masterpiece.

The poem is subtitled “An Autobiography” (and carries the dedication “For Peggy”); Bunting's notes comment on the subtitle: “AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, but not a record of fact. The first movement is no more a chronicle than the

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1396 words

Citation: Pursglove, Glyn. "Briggflatts". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6205, accessed 01 May 2024.]

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