SATIRE IN JOHN BETJEMAN’S POETRY
SATIRE IN JOHN BETJEMAN’S POETRY

Summary/Abstract: Sir John Betjeman has written about the great themes – love, God, death, and place, but he is known for his nostalgia for the past, his exact sense of place, and his precise account of social dysfunctions, at a time when the values he wrote about had been questioned and altered. He used traditional poetic forms, wrote about public issues, celebrated classic architecture, and satirized much of contemporary society for its superficiality, beaurocracy, failure of human communication, hypocrisy, egotism and moral fatigue. Betjeman’s poems are often humorous and ironical, characterized by a satirical and observant character. His attack on the values of contemporary society is mainly directed to the promoters of empty and often destructive “progress”. “Perhaps [Betjeman] can best be described as a writer who uses the medium of light verse for a serious purpose: not merely as a vehicle for satire or social commentary, but as a means of expressing a peculiar and specialized form of aesthetic emotion, in which nostalgia and humour are about equally blended”(Brooke, 1962). His light, ironical but biting satire on human nature helped him to express his belief in the importance of human values, which makes Betjeman a truly modern significant poet.

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