"Beasley Street" is a poem by the English poet John Cooper Clarke. Dealing with poverty in inner-city Salford, Cooper Clarke has said that the poem was inspired by Camp Street in Lower Broughton.[1] It has a relentless theme of squalor and despair:
- The rats have all got rickets
- They spit through broken teeth
- The name of the game is not cricket
- Caught out on Beasley Street
The poem is similar in theme to "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" by Stephen Spender published in his New Collected Poems (1964).[2][citation needed]
A recitation of the poem appears on Cooper Clarke's 1980 album Snap, Crackle & Bop. When it was released, BBC radio stations censored the line "Keith Joseph smiles and a baby dies/ In a box on Beasley Street."[3]
In the 2010s Cooper Clarke has performed a "sequel" poem, "Beasley Boulevard" which deals with urban regeneration and mentions Urban Splash.[4]
References
edit- ^ "John Cooper Clarke On Life In Higher Broughton". salfordstar.com. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
- ^ Stephen Spender. "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum". poetryfoundation.org. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
- ^ "A life of rhyme: John Cooper Clarke, the 'punk Poet Laureate'". independent.co.uk. 8 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
- ^ "John Cooper Clarke: Extra". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
External links
edit- Full lyrics at genius.com
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