“The Group was an informal group of poets who met in London from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s

The group

“The Group was an informal group of poets who met in London from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. As a poetic movement in Great Britain it is often seen as a being the successor to The Movement. But this movement take place in some cities along the time, like in Cambridge that in November 1952 while at Downing College, Cambridge University, Philip Hobsbaum along with two friends, Tony Davis and Neil Morris, dissatisfied with the way poetry was read aloud in the university, decided to place a notice in the undergraduate newspaper Varsity for people interested in forming a poetry discussion group. Five others, including Peter Redgrove came along to the first meeting. Another city was London that when Hobsbaum moved to there, the discussion group reconstituted itself in this city. It is this London group that is now referred to as The Group. The poets gathered to discuss each other's work, putting into practice the sort of analysis and objective comment in keeping with the principles of Hobsbaum's Cambridge tutor F. R. Leavis and of the New Criticism in general”.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Group_%28literature%29 16/12/2006

Section: The group

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.library.rdg.ac.uk/colls/special/group.html

section: the group

16/12/2006 University of Reading

Home: http://www.library.rdg.ac.uk/ )

"This is a group of poets who find it possible to meet and discuss each other's work helpfully and without backbiting or backscratching…we have no axe to grind - this isn't a gang and there's no monolithic body of doctrine to which everyone must subscribe"

(http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/hobsbaum.html

Section: Philip Hobsbaum

16/12/2006 Philip Hobsbaum Collection Finding Aid

Home: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ )

“The circle of poets was expanded to include Fleur Adcock, Taner Baybars, Edwin Brock, and Zulfikar Ghose; others including Nathaniel Tarn circulated poems for comment”.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Group_%28literature%29 16/12/2006

Section: The Group

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page )

The work of these poets has several themes as: 'frank autobiographical poems' and a 'poetry of direct experience' in Lucie-Smith and Hobsbaum, “satire” was prominent in the works of Bell, Brownjohn, and Porter.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Group_%28literature%29 16/12/2006

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Section: The Group

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-group-literature 16/12/2006

Section: The Group

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Another city where this movement take place too was Belfast bit there it was called as The Belfast Group.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Group_%28literature%29 16/12/2006

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Section: The Group

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-group-literature 16/12/2006

Section: The Group

Home: http://www.answers.com/)

Lucie-Smith was an important figure overcoat when Hobsbaum left London to study in Sheffield that the chairmanship of the group passed to Edward Lucie-Smith in 1959.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Group_%28literature%29 16/12/2006

Section: The Group

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page )

“Although there was some slight overlap in personnel with The Movement, the various incarnations of the Group had a more concrete existence and a more practical focus. The Cambridge Group was initially concerned with the oral performance of poetry, but soon turned into an exercise in practical criticism and mutual support for a network of poets”.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hobsbaum 16/12/2006

Section: Philip Hobsbaum

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page )

The group appear as a succesor of the Movement but not appear as a movement against the romanticism as the other one. It took place in several cities but the truly group was that took place in London. This grouo of people met to discourse the works of themselves. We can see some autobiographical poetry and some poetry of direct experience by Lucie-Smith and Hobsbaum and some satire poetry by Bell, brownjohn and Poter. But the main important author in this group was Lucie-Smith.

With all of this we see that they not use romantic characteristics as in a way appear in “the Movement” because they try to made autobiographical and satire poetry and not romantic one with nature and love themes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Group_%28literature%29 16/12/2006

Section: The group

Home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

2. http://www.library.rdg.ac.uk/colls/special/group.html

section: the group

16/12/2006 University of Reading

Home: http://www.library.rdg.ac.uk/

3. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/hobsbaum.html

Section: Philip Hobsbaum

16/12/2006 Philip Hobsbaum Collection Finding Aid

Home: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ )