"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. 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).
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."
In the 2010s Cooper Clarke has performed a "sequel" poem, "Beasley Boulevard" which deals with urban regeneration and mentions Urban Splash.
References
- "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
- Full lyrics at genius.com
| John Cooper Clarke | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio albums |
| ||||
| Poems | |||||
 | This article related to a poem from the UK or its predecessor states is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |