Brian Patten (born 7 February 1946) is an English poet and author.[1] He came to prominence in the 1960s as one of theLiverpool poets, and writes primarily lyrical poetry about human relationships. His famous works include "Little Johnny's Confessions", "The Irrelevant Song", "Vanishing Trick", "Emma's Doll", and "Impossible Parents".
Patten was born inBootle,Liverpool, England.[2] He attended Sefton Park School in theSmithdown Road area of Liverpool, where his early poetic writing was encouraged.[1] He left school at fifteen and began work forThe Bootle Times writing a column on popular music. At age 18, he moved to Paris, where he lived rough for a time, earning money by writing poems in chalk on the pavements.[3]
Together with the other twoLiverpool poets,Roger McGough andAdrian Henri, Patten publishedThe Mersey Sound in 1967. One of the best-selling poetry anthologies of modern times,The Mersey Sound aimed to make poetry accessible to a broader audience. It has been described as "the most significant anthology of the twentieth century".[4] Together with Henri and McGough, Patten was awarded theFreedom of the City of Liverpool in 2001.[5]
Patten's first published volumes of poems wereLittle Johnny's Confession (1967) andNotes to the Hurrying Man (1969). They were followed byThe Irrelevant Song (1971),Vanishing Trick (1976) and Grave Gossip (1979). In 1983, along withRoger McGough andAdrian Henri, Patten published the follow-up toThe Mersey Sound withNew Volume. Patten's later solo collections,Storm Damage (1988) andArmada (1996), are more varied, the latter featuring a sequence of poems concerning the death of his mother and memories of his childhood.Armada is perhaps Patten's most mature and formal book, dispensing with much of the playfulness of former work. He has also written comic verse for children, notablyGargling With Jelly andThawing Frozen Frogs.
Patten's style is generallylyrical and his subjects are primarily love and relationships. His 1986 collectionLove Poems draws together his best work in this area from the previous sixteen years.Charles Causley commented that he "reveals a sensibility profoundly aware of the ever-present possibility of the magical and the miraculous, as well as of the granite-hard realities. These are undiluted poems, beautifully calculated, informed - even in their darkest moments - with courage and hope."[6]
The actorPaul Bettany, in his contribution to the poetry collectionPoems That Make Grown Men Cry (2014), said of Patten's work: "Reading Brian Patten's poetry does that trick that art should do, which is to sort of adhere you to the surface of the planet, just long enough that you don't go spinning off into the loneliness of space - 'Somebody else has felt this too', you think. And you breathe a little easier".[7]
Patten's poem "So Many Different Lengths of Time" has, in recent times, become a popular poem recited at funerals. At the service to rememberKen Dodd in Liverpool'sAnglican Cathedral, the actorStephanie Cole read "So Many Different Lengths of Time" to a congregation of thousands within and outside the building. Opening his poem with verse byPablo Neruda, Patten's poem argues that it is the act of remembrance which offers family members the best antidote to the anguish of loss. In tackling the subject of grief, Patten views poetry as performing an important social function: "Poetry helps us understand what we’ve forgotten to remember. It reminds us of things that are important to us when the world overtakes us emotionally."[8]
