Searching for the soul of the city
CityPoem 37 - Sheffield
By Hans Karssenberg
18-03-2007 /views: 1107 in past 12 months.
Official announcement: Sheffield is twinning with Mars.
Photo: lizjones112
Sheffield CityPoem: Off the Shelf, Roger McGough
(Poem about Sheffield on the wall in Sheffield, displayed on the glass of the Winter Garden, one of the city's best loved buildings. It was unveiled on 14 February 2006, and especially written by Roger McGough for the Sheffield Off the Shelf Festival of Writing and Reading, one of the most successful and celebrated cultural events in the region. The design has been specially created to reflect the poem’s content, and is 5.5 metres tall and 3.5 metres wide.
Roger McGough has fond memories of Sheffield from when he performed in music venues during the sixties and seventies and also when he returned to Sheffield to visit his son at university. Finn McGough, graduated in Film Studies from Sheffield Hallam University and later went on to win the Prix Europa for the best Television documentary of year in 2005. Roger refers to his son in the poem and Finn will be present during the unveiling.)
When they closed the foundries
and the mills
You could have taken
to the hills
But you stayed
Might have given up the ghost
but instead
You took a deep breath
forged ahead
Bright as a blade
* * *
I like this place
my son a student here
City of space
open skies and stars
Sheffield
Twinned with Mars
About the author
Roger McGough (born November 9, 1937) is a well-known British performance poet.
He was born in Litherland in north Liverpool, a city with which he is firmly associated in most people's minds. Together with Mike McGear and John Gorman – both multi-talented entertainers, he formed The Scaffold, a comedy group, hitting number one in the British charts in 1968 with their version of Lily the Pink. McGough co-wrote many of their songs. He continues to perform widely.
McGough was also responsible for much of the humorous dialogue in The Beatles' animated movie Yellow Submarine, although he did not receive an on-screen credit for it.
Along with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten, with whom he published two best-selling volumes of verse entitled The Mersey Sound, McGough won fame of a slightly more serious nature as one of the "Mersey Poets" of the 1960s and 70s.
In 1978 McGough appeared in All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary detailing the career of a Beatles-like group called The Rutles. In McGough's scene his introduction takes so long that he is only asked one question ("Did you know the Rutles?," to which McGough cheerfully responds "Oh yes") before the documentary is forced to move along to other events.
He now presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please and records voice-overs for commercials.
He was awarded the CBE in June 2004. He was awarded an Honorary Degree from Roehampton University in 2006.
> See the author’s website: http://www.rogermcgough.org.uk/
Inspiring Cities Museum of CityPoems
Inspiring Cities has collected many citypoems over the years, as well as organized salons with citypoets and cities doing special projects. We have two criteria for what a citypoem is: the intention must be poetic, and it must be in the public realm of cities. Shapes, form and locations can and do differ.
The Museum of CityPoems has citypoems from cities all over the world. From Alhambra to Zonnebeke, from Taipei to Lima.
Got one yourself? Mail us your pictures (free of rights) and description, and we will publish.
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