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James Kirkup

The Knitting Circle: Poetry

Biography,work.

British poet, novelist, playwright, translator, and broadcaster.

Author of the poemThe Love That Dares to Speak Its Namewhich was the subject of theGay Newsblasphemy trial in 1997.

His mother was Mary Johnson, and his father James Harold Kirkup.

James Kirkup went to to South Shields High School, and then to Durham University.

He held an academic post in Leeds University (1950-52), and then from the 1960s he held academic posts in Japan. He became Professor of English Literature at Kyoto University.

His poems were regularly published in theListenerfrom 1949 to 1965. He read a number of his poems on BBC radio.

The poemThe Love That Dares to Speak Its Nameimagines a Roman centurion having gay sex with Jesus of Nazareth. The title of the poem was inspired by the last line of the poemTwo LovesbyAlfred Douglas, the companion ofOscar Wilde.

Mary Whitehouse had used her position as president of the National Viewers and Listeners Association (National VALA), an organisation she had set up, in her to campaign to 'clean up' television for some years. She 'passed' the issue of Gays News containing James Kirkup's poem to the Director of Public Prosecutions. (It may have been illegal to send any offensive material through the Royal Mail.)

The trial took place on 4th. July, 1997, and the editor ofGay News,Denis Lemon, and the publishers were charged with an offence under a blasphemy libel law This was the first case under this law that had gone to court for fifty years. Justice Alan King-Hamilton disallowed the defence of the poem on any literary or theological grounds. The defendents were convicted.

The poem would probably have been read by only a few hundred people, and perhaps largely forgotten, if it were not for the publicity of the trial. This meant that at the time of the trial and after, the poem benefited from a widespread illicit distribution amongst the chattering classes and students. Although the poem still cannot be published in Britain the development of the internet has meant that many more people have been able to access the poem from Britain and anywhere else in the world if they have had the means to perform a simple search on the internet.

• The following two poems are re-published byStephen Coote, (1983).

  • Gay Boys, page 328.
  • The Love of Older Men, page 329.

• Human and Divine Love, 1949.

• Narcissus, 1949.

• The Poet and His Lice, 1952.

• A Correct Compassion,(a collection of poems), 1952.

• The Secret Agent, 1953.

• The Dustbin, 1954.

• The Kitchen Sink, 1955.

• The Only Child, (an autobiographical volume), 1957.

• Sorrows, Passions and Alarms: An Autobiography of Childhood, 1959, published by Collins, 192 pages, (hardback).

• Fever, 1960.

• The love of others, 1962, Collins, 3 pages,SBU Library Main Bookstock 823.9.

• The Old Trousers, 1965.

• Zen Contemplations,(a collection of poems), 1978.

• By An Unknown Photographer: 'A Jew Hounded in Amsterdam - 1943,Divina Commedia,The Passionate Penisist,The Swiss Post-Office Clerk or Winter in the Alps, poems published inNot Love Alone, Martin Humphries, (1985).

• I, of All People, (an autobiographical volume), 1990.

• A Poet Could Not But be Gay, (an autobiographical volume), 1991, Peter Owen, 240 pages, ISBN 0720608236 (hardcover).

• Me All Over, (an autobiographical volume), 1993.

• Strange Attractors: New Poems, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), x + 74 pages, ISBN 3-70520427-0.

• A Certain State of Mind: An Anthology of Classic, Modern and Contemporary Japanese Haiku in Translation with Essays and Reviews, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), x + 134 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0941-8.

• Omens of Distaster: Collected Shorter Poems Vol. 1, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), xviii + 229 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0288-X.

• Once and for alL: Collected Shorter Poems Vol. 2, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), viii + 267 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0289-8.

• An Extended Breath: Collected Longer Poems Vol. 1, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), xxviii + 243 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0287-1.

• Measures of Time: Collected Longer Poems Vol. 2, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), x + 202 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0070-4.

• Burning Giraffes: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry in translation with introductory notes by James Kirkup, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), xxii + 409 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0962-0.

• The Patient Obituarist, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), 150 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0981.

• Broad Daylight: Poems East and West, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), xii + 321 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0997-3.

• True Mysteries: and a Chronicle Play of Peterborough Cathedral, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), 265 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0075-5.

• Two German Drama Classics: Heinrich von Kleist: The Prince of Homburg and Johan Christoph Friedrich von Schiller: Don Carlos, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), viii + 174 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0069-0.

• A Child of the Tyne: Autobiographies, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), 239 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0060-7.

• A Book of Tanka: An Anthology of Tanka, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), 221 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0061-5.

• How to Cook Women: Poems and Prose of Takagi Kyozo. Introduced and Translated by James Kirkup and Michio Nakano, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), xvi + 81 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0062-3.

• Tanka Tales: And Various Works in Traditional Tanka Form, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), 104 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0127-1.

• Pikadon: An Epic Poem of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), v + 135 pages, ISBN 3-7052-0128-X.

• Diversions: A Celebration for James Kirkup on his Eightieth Birthday, published by Poetry Salzburg (formerly the University of Salzburg Press), Ed. James Hogg, 400 pages + 12 phtographs, ISBN 3-7052-0155-7.

Biography,work.

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The Knitting Circle

First uploaded 27th. August, 1998

Last altered 13th. July, 2003