I'm guessing you really have to be up on British politics to have it all make sense. The WTF? line for me was:

"But the lady with the pit bull terrier
does not dance. "

Unless this is a reference to the San Francisco pit bull case of a few years ago (which is a bit dated, but still has weird details like the white supremacist son named "Corn Fed"), it just sounds odd.

And I really wanted to add a "in the land of Mordor/where shadows lie" at the end of the Five Golden Rings stanza.

It seemed it needed that.

Well, not sure she's really interested in wildfowl after all. Would still like to find the Alfred Austin RSPB verses, though.

Kevin, the pit bull reference may be to the case of a child killed by one in her grandmother's house a week or so ago. Some of the other references in the 'lady' section are also to very recent events in the UK.

I'm a big fan of CA Duffy, as can be seen by some threads around here, but this is pretty rubbish. Hopefully she will not succumb to laurelitis,
Peter

Look it may not be good enough for Umbrella or for the likes of us but it speaks to the concerns of the people who think we're rubbish.

There are lots of examples of poets who suffer when they accept high office.

No it doesn't, Janet. The people you speak of won't read it.

Sorry for my ignorance, but where does the poem appear? Is it something we poor benighted Americans can look at?

Maryann it seems to be in the popular British TV and radio journal, "Radio Times".
http://www.radiotimes.com/
A seasonal verse by the new poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, commissioned exclusively for Radio Times.

John, unless life has changed a great deal since I lived there (and I think it has) "Radio Times" is/was read by most people who own a TV set or a radio. True they might skip the poem but it will be lying about in a great many UK homes, or would have lain about in my London days.

I would respectfully disagree with this assertion. In any case, I would point out that there is no evidence for the assertion in the present example. The only assertion proved by the Duffy piece is: crappy poetry and our precious time -- never the twain should meet.

David R.

A poet laureate is supposed to say something relevant to the times. Sadly, good poets are seldom appointed.

...which is precisely the problem.

The poem that lies around in many UK homes is a scrap of drivel I'd have scolded a child for writing. And yet THIS is what people will associate with modern poetry, because it is the most readily available to them. This is why better poetry (as subjective of a term that is) doesn't get out there: crap like this in a large publication gives the average layman the false impression that this is what is considered "high quality poetry" these days. And since that person ALSO thinks it's twaddle, much like most of the poetry community, he says to himself, "Well, this poetry stuff clearly isn't for me." Thanks Carol. Thanks Radio Times.

There are far too many soapboxes out there for one so flimsy as this to be the most accessible.