Gavin Bantock

Gavin Bantock (born July 4, 1939) is an English-Japanese poet; he is the grandson of Granville Bantock.[1] He was born in Barnt Green, and attended New College, Oxford, where he won the Richard Hillary prize for poetry.[2][3] He traveled to Japan in 1964 on the advice of his father, Raymond, and returned five years later to teach at Reitaku University.[1] He has remained in the country ever since. Initially teaching English language and literature at Reitaku, he began also leading a group of students in productions of English plays, which eventually became his primary career. After retiring from Reitaku in 1994, he became the drama coach at Meitoku Gijuku High School in Kochi.[1]

Many of Bantock's poems treat elements of Christianity, history, mythology, or medieval and Renaissance literature in arresting, often disturbing terms. His book-length poem "Christ," first published in 1965 and issued in a revised edition in 2020, is skeptical of "any idea of an innate and preordained divinity in an incarnate Christ," according to Adrian A. Husain's introduction to the revised edition.[4] His poems "Joy" and "Dirge" were included by Philip Larkin in the The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse.[5] John Matthias included excerpts from Bantock's "Hiroshima," which Matthias calls "terrifying," in the collection 23 Modern British Poets.[3]

Selected books
  • Christ: A Poem in Twenty-Six Parts. Oxford: D. Parsons, 1965.
  • Juggernaut. Northwood: Anvil Press Poetry, 1968.
  • A New Thing Breathing. Northwood: Anvil Press Poetry, 1969.
  • Anhaga. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1972.
  • Eirenikon: A Poem. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1972.
  • Dragons. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1979.
  • Just Think of It. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2002.
  • SeaManShip. Manchester: Carcanet, 2003.
  • Christos: Lovesong of the Son of Man. Buckhorn Weston: Brimstone Press, 2020.

References
  1. Corkill, Edan (June 26, 2012). "British drama coach Gavin Bantock at top of his game; casts take a bow". Japan Times. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  2. "Gavin Bantock". Carcanet Press. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  3. Matthias, John (November 20, 2019). "Some Longer Poems About World War II". Dispatches from the Poetry Wars. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  4. Bantock, Gavin (2020). Christos: Lovesong of the Son of Man. Buckhorn Weston: Brimstone Press. p. xi. ISBN 9798685521552.
  5. Larkin, Philip, ed. (1973). The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 621. ISBN 0198121377.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.