THE ENGLISH USE OF ADDRESS AS IDENTITY IN PROSE, POETRY, AND SONG LYRICS PLUS CURRENTLY READING JOHN BETJEMAN

Currently reading the poetry of John Betjeman and reflecting that English prose (books as well as song lyrics) effectively use address as identity, part of the country or part of London as explanation of personality….American writers don’t do this in the same way….They feel the need to explain their surroundings or talk about a larger entity like the South….When the British do this it does not seem obscure to the non-English….One knows instantly what they are talking about within the context of what is written.

Sociologist and linguist Basil Bernstein wrote “Forms of spoken language in the process of their learning initiate, generalize and reinforce special types of relationship with the environment and thus create for the individual particular forms of significance” ….I agree!

British writers in prose and song lyrics link a place to some immediate feeling….This lifts that place from historical or geographical reference point only and makes it a character….One is not limited by their knowledge of the place used as in this narrative device…. Think of Waterloo Station and “Waterloo Sunset” by Ray Davies as an example.

I would also say that much of my favorite American writing is often about the rootlessness of American life, the transitory migratory life caused by economics or just by some twisted version of the pioneer spirit or the desire to get the hell out of America....Even a writer like Thomas Wolfe (whom I admire tremendously) who is closely identified with The South often deals with that part of the American existence and factors that make it worse-The work for materialism life etc.

I would say the difference is the British relate it to a universal experience we can all share in whereas American writers more kind of expect you to go with them and they will tell you about their world....Both approaches have their merits but I like the shared way kind of produces a sense of consciousness (of an audience for starters but also maybe something more global).

By the way, John Betjeman had a sly sense of humor to compliment his otherwise streamlined poetry….Like a less literal, less cranky Philip Larkin (although I still like Larkin’s work better) or a less pretentious Auden, Betjeman work also made good use of different rhyme schemes….There is a musical sense to a lot of his work.