George MacBeth

MacBeth, George Mann (1932– ), poet, was a member of the Group during the 1950s and in the 1960s was associated with the vogue for poetry in performance. His early work was experimental and at times macabre and violent in its preoccupations; later collections show (in his own words) fewer ‘comic and performance and experimental elements’ (foreword to Poems from Oby, 1982). His works include A Form of Words (1954), The Colour of Blood (1967), and Collected Poems 1958–1970 (1971).

George MacBeth 1932-92, Scottish poet, grad. Oxford, 1955. He was until 1976 a producer for the BBC. His best poetry, such as The Broken Places (1963), often treats violent subjects in a combination of fantasy and reality. He wrote with wit and vitality, blending an enthusiasm for many formal poetic forms and figures of speech with an exciting lack of restraint. Other volumes of poetry include A Form of Words (1954), The Colour of Blood (1967), Collected Poems (1972), and Shrapnel and A Poet's Year (1974).