Briggflatts was Basil Bunting's defining triumph. Technical problems in the earlier sonatas were now resolved. After many years of ‘sharp study and long toil’ (SV 314), the poet produced a work of intricate patterning and sonic drive. His handling of the poetic line remains an enduring legacy. He created an economy of expression which not infrequently drew on alliterative rhythms and monosyllabic precision, creating an auditory effect which rewarded the ear in varying ways. This gives rise to a vigorous if melopoeic compression not without bardic possibilities. The success of Briggflatts in the mid-1960s gave energy to the British Poetry Revival, a period of poetic experiment that sought to transcend the narrowness of the Movement by reexamining modernist legacies on both sides of the Atlantic. Briggflatts heralded the ‘discovery of a poet who although steeped in international modernist traditions fashioned a profoundly English poem. There had been a long hiatus before the emergence of Briggflatts. Its success placed Bunting in the limelight and there would have been some expectation of future work. Apart from a handful of odes including ‘At Briggflatts meetinghouse’ (CP 145) and ‘Perche no Spero’ (CP 146), nothing of import materialized. The post-Briggflatts years were given over to intermittent periods of teaching, interviews and readings rather than further poetic production. This might seem like a lost opportunity but there were material reasons behind it. Makin argues that notwithstanding Bunting's new-found literary fame he never became ‘bankable’ and the drudgery continued even as he reached his later years. It wasn't the drudgery of a provincial newspaper but nevertheless Bunting continued to face an uncertain future as he struggled to support his family and himself. Although American university teaching posts were quite well paid they were temporary and nonrenewable so that ‘from 1966 until his death in 1985, Bunting was never at any time in command of an income that could be expected to last more than two years from the date of its inception’ (SV 314). Neither patronage near to home nor the Gulbenkian Foundation delivered Bunting from these tribulations and one can see how this financially difficult situation might have interfered with further creativity.