V (poem)
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"V" (sometimes styled "v.".
Premise and setting
"V" describes the author's visit to his parents' grave in a Leeds cemetery "now littered with beer cans and vandalised by obscene graffiti". The cemetery in question is Holbeck Cemetery in the Beeston area of Leeds which overlooks the Elland Road football ground, close to where Harrison grew up.
The poem gives a description of the graffiti on the grave, and pays particular notice to the use of the word united, exploring its ambiguous meaning, either as the name of a football club (e.g.,
"V" first appeared in the London Review of Books in 1985 and was first published in book form in November 1985 by Bloodaxe Books. The second edition, published by Bloodaxe in 1989, includes press articles relating to the media furore around the 1987 Channel Four film and commentary by Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley and the film's director Richard Eyre. The poem was also reprinted in the second edition of Tony Harrison's Selected Poems (1987), in later editions of that book, and in his Collected Poems (2007).
Political references
The poem was written during the
Broadcast and controversy
A filmed version of "V" was broadcast by Channel 4 on 4 November 1987.[1] Prior to the broadcast, both tabloid and broadsheet press articles openly criticised the move. An early day motion entitled "Television Obscenity" was put to the house on 27 October 1987 by a small group of Conservative MPs. The motion was only opposed by one MP, Norman Buchan (Labour), who suggested that MPs had either failed to read or failed to understand the poem. In the midst of the controversy, The Independent published the poem in full in the newspaper to allow readers to judge the poem for themselves.[3]
Conservative Party MP
The BBC also broadcast the poem in full on 18 February 2013 on BBC Radio 4.[2]
References
- ^ a b "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute".
- ^ a b "Tony Harrison to perform controversial poem V on Radio". BBC News. 14 January 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "The Blagger's Guide To: Tony Harrison". The Independent. 28 April 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2017.