Brian Higgins (poet)
Encyclopedia
Brian Higgins Poet
, mathematician
and professional rugby player.
Thus states the biographical note on the endpaper of Brian Higgins's first book of poems, The Only Need. Brian Higgins died in 1965, before his third book of poems The Northern Fiddler appeared. In an introduction to this book the poet George Barker
wrote that Higgins: ‘had perceived that the secret at the heart of affairs constituted the most ingenious practical joke, which only a man who was at one and the same time a mathematician and a poet of sentiment could start functioning for the amusement and edification of all concerned’.
Higgins called himself "a realist who wished to be romantic".
, Yorkshire
. He was a gifted mathematician
and, briefly, a professional Rugby League
footballer. He then became a schoolteacher; but soon abandoned this for a literary career, at which he was also unsuccessful. After living from hand to mouth for some years, he died of a rare heart disease. As a poet he first came to attention through X (magazine)
and it was one of X's editors, Patrick Swift
, who first put him up - or as David Wright
has said: 'put up with him' - in London
. Wright amusingly goes on to recall: " More than once Swift and I had to sit on his head to stop him writing furious letters full of impossible pecuniary demands to whichever was the unfortunate punblisher of the moment. Higgins would say, with impenetrable logic: 'Look, it's going to cost them £500 to publish these rubbishy poems. Why don't they give me the £500 and not publish?' "
Martin Seymour-Smith
says that "in some twenty poems, including ‘Snow and Poetry’ and ‘A Slight Unease’, he achieved a surprisingly precise, elegant and metaphysical voice that might well have been developed had he lived."
And David Wright on Higgins in Poetry Review: "Martin Seymour-Smith remarks in his Guide to Modern World Literature, ‘a hit-or-miss poet . . . who had too little time to exercise control over his considerable intelligence’. But one or two of his poems sustain a comparison with Blake, that else might seem fatuous, made by a reviewer of his last and posthumous book in the New Statesman (which of course never published a line by Higgins while he was alive; despite or because of the abusive letters Higgins used to hurl at its editor)...Useless to speculate what he might have done or been; but with his going there closed a window which would have let fresh air into the hothouse. Some of us might have felt the draught."
Poem
Welfare X = Y, by Brian Higgins
I am a digit soon to be cancelled out. /
What does it matter, an integer, more or less? /
For allowance is made in the rules that the world is a mess, /
Plus or minus a few perhaps, but it's right—just about. /
A knife in my guts is the line of a pen through my mark /
And all my biography told in the numbers to ten /
The cock of my eye to the sun and the laugh of my soul to the dark, /
For I am one of the faceless signs, one of the Welfare Men. /
The decimals stutter and this is the lie they repeat. /
"The years that he lived are accountable for in the main /
Add him up on the left and the right and it balances neat /
A few blank months—but we soon got him working again". /
Yes, ordinate and abscissa, they chose for the graph /
The amount of Time spent related to What is Produced /
And a line through incorellate points is my strange epitaph /
"With the usual allowance for error X equals Y is educed." /
-Reprinted from The Only Need, Brian Higgins. Published by Abelard-Schuman London, 1960.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and professional rugby player.
‘Born at Batley in 1930, bored at Bradford in 1940, in 1950 he had an affair with the gamma function. He was educated in 1960 at the "York Minster", Soho.’
Thus states the biographical note on the endpaper of Brian Higgins's first book of poems, The Only Need. Brian Higgins died in 1965, before his third book of poems The Northern Fiddler appeared. In an introduction to this book the poet George Barker
George Barker (poet)
George Granville Barker was an English poet and author.-Life and work:Barker was born in Loughton, near Epping Forest in Essex, England, elder brother of Kit Barker [painter] George Barker was raised by his Irish mother and English father in Battersea, London. He was educated at an L.C.C. school...
wrote that Higgins: ‘had perceived that the secret at the heart of affairs constituted the most ingenious practical joke, which only a man who was at one and the same time a mathematician and a poet of sentiment could start functioning for the amusement and edification of all concerned’.
Higgins called himself "a realist who wished to be romantic".
Biography
He was born in BatleyBatley
Batley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies southeast of Bradford, southwest of Leeds and north of Dewsbury, near the M62 motorway. It has a population of 49,448 . Other nearby towns include Morley to the northeast, Ossett to the southeast...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. He was a gifted mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and, briefly, a professional Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
footballer. He then became a schoolteacher; but soon abandoned this for a literary career, at which he was also unsuccessful. After living from hand to mouth for some years, he died of a rare heart disease. As a poet he first came to attention through X (magazine)
X (magazine)
X, A Quarterly Review was a British arts review published in London which ran for seven issues between 1959-1962. It was founded and co-edited by Patrick Swift and David Wright...
and it was one of X's editors, Patrick Swift
Patrick Swift
Patrick Swift was an artist born in Dublin, Ireland. Patrick Swift was a painter and key cultural figure in Dublin and London before moving to the Algarve in southern Portugal, where he is buried in the town of Porches...
, who first put him up - or as David Wright
David Wright (poet)
David John Murray Wright was an author and "an acclaimed South African-born poet".-Biography:Wright was born in Johannesburg, South Africa 23 February 1920 of normal hearing....
has said: 'put up with him' - in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Wright amusingly goes on to recall: " More than once Swift and I had to sit on his head to stop him writing furious letters full of impossible pecuniary demands to whichever was the unfortunate punblisher of the moment. Higgins would say, with impenetrable logic: 'Look, it's going to cost them £500 to publish these rubbishy poems. Why don't they give me the £500 and not publish?' "
Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Roger Seymour-Smith was a British poet, literary critic, biographer and astrologer.Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Oxford University where he was editor of Isis...
says that "in some twenty poems, including ‘Snow and Poetry’ and ‘A Slight Unease’, he achieved a surprisingly precise, elegant and metaphysical voice that might well have been developed had he lived."
And David Wright on Higgins in Poetry Review: "Martin Seymour-Smith remarks in his Guide to Modern World Literature, ‘a hit-or-miss poet . . . who had too little time to exercise control over his considerable intelligence’. But one or two of his poems sustain a comparison with Blake, that else might seem fatuous, made by a reviewer of his last and posthumous book in the New Statesman (which of course never published a line by Higgins while he was alive; despite or because of the abusive letters Higgins used to hurl at its editor)...Useless to speculate what he might have done or been; but with his going there closed a window which would have let fresh air into the hothouse. Some of us might have felt the draught."
Poem
Welfare X = Y, by Brian Higgins
I am a digit soon to be cancelled out. /
What does it matter, an integer, more or less? /
For allowance is made in the rules that the world is a mess, /
Plus or minus a few perhaps, but it's right—just about. /
A knife in my guts is the line of a pen through my mark /
And all my biography told in the numbers to ten /
The cock of my eye to the sun and the laugh of my soul to the dark, /
For I am one of the faceless signs, one of the Welfare Men. /
The decimals stutter and this is the lie they repeat. /
"The years that he lived are accountable for in the main /
Add him up on the left and the right and it balances neat /
A few blank months—but we soon got him working again". /
Yes, ordinate and abscissa, they chose for the graph /
The amount of Time spent related to What is Produced /
And a line through incorellate points is my strange epitaph /
"With the usual allowance for error X equals Y is educed." /
-Reprinted from The Only Need, Brian Higgins. Published by Abelard-Schuman London, 1960.
Work
- The Only Need, Abelard-Schuman, London (1960)
- Notes While Travelling, London: Longmans, (1964)
- The Northern Fiddler, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd (1966)
Reference & Further Reading
- X (magazine)X (magazine)X, A Quarterly Review was a British arts review published in London which ran for seven issues between 1959-1962. It was founded and co-edited by Patrick Swift and David Wright...
: X a Quarterly Review. Volume 2 Number 2, Barrie & Rockliff, London (1961) - Essays. 1st UK in dj.,BARKER, George, MacGibbon & Kee, London, 1970,
- Biography
- Indian Uni
- George Barker letters
- Anthony CroninAnthony CroninAnthony Cronin is an Irish poet. He received the Marten Toonder Award for his contribution to Irish literature....
http://www.jstor.org/pss/25547164 - Poem for Patrick SwiftPatrick SwiftPatrick Swift was an artist born in Dublin, Ireland. Patrick Swift was a painter and key cultural figure in Dublin and London before moving to the Algarve in southern Portugal, where he is buried in the town of Porches...
, by Higgins: Patrick Swift 1927-83 (Gandon Editions, Kinsale, 1993) - Poetry Foundation
- Poetry Magazines, David Wright, Another Part of the Wood
- Irish Writers
- Poetry Mag
- Oxford Journals
- Literature