Duffy for Laureate
 

The word is that Carol Ann Duffy has been informally offered, and will accept, the Brit Poet Laureateship, succeeding Andrew Motion.
One commentator described the job as a "double-edged chalice".
Duffy was the favourite last time round, but it seems that Tony Blair vetoed her appointment because of her sexual orientation.

Could you post a link, David? I read somewhere that this will be three firsts: first woman, first Scot, and wasn't the third one first non-heterosexual?

She's a brave woman, that's for sure! Changing the system from within?

Duncan

I've met Carol Anne. She's about as Scots as my bottom. Less, come to that since my mother was Scots and therefore... Oh well, with Kate Winslet claiming to be working class...

As for the last, didn't you know that Tennyson was a cross-dresser? And Masefield's love of sailors is well-documented.

Well, John, I was just quoting the article from memory. There were three firsts, I recall.

But FYI Carol Ann Duffy’s parents are both Glaswegian, and she lived in Glasgow till she was six. She may not openly reveal her Scottish roots, but they're certainly there.

Duncan

Pre-empting you, David, perhaps.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...t-1674745.html

I see "openly gay" is what is one of the two firsts. The article doesn't say she'll be the first Scottish Poet Laureate. I must have dreamt that up. Has there ever been a Scottish Poet Laureate?

Duncan

There has never been a Scottish Poet Laureate, no...but Walter Scott was offered the post upon Henry James Pye's death and turned it down.

Why does Carol Anne have to think so long about it? Either you fancy the job or you don't.

I think because she did want it before the last appointment, but when she was turned down with all the rumours of it being about sexual orientation, it sort of stung quite a bit. Plus, the Poet Laureate position doesn't always lend itself to producing good poetry.

Well you certainly said a mouthful there, Alex. Can anyone remember the last great ceremonial poem a Poet Laureate wrote? The post is a chimera, no one could walk into the job and start writing fabulous poems about the Royal Family and all their doings. The best thing is to be offered the post then publicly turn it down - like Alan Bennett snubbing his K. - you get the kudos of everyone knowing you're up to the job without actually having to do it.

They did ask me but I had to turn it down. Too busy entering competitions in The Spectator and The Oldie. The Queen was very understanding, particularly when I told her I was kneeling by the phone

"Why does Carol Anne have to think so long about it? Either you fancy the job or you don't."

Why do people wait three rings to answer the phone? Why do people turn up a bit late to the party? Not because they don't want to answer. Not because they don't want to be there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8027767.stm

Hooray! We have a new Poet Laureate. And New Labour's ten year tenancy has allowed us to quickly address the gender/sexuality/race/disability/etc/ad nauseum imbalance: first woman, first Scot, first this, first that, and a smattering of artistic praise about emotion from our emotional PM:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "She is a truly brilliant modern poet who has stretched our imaginations by putting the whole range of human experiences into lines that capture the emotions perfectly."

That's a man wot knows his emotional onions. In ten years we'll be on the hunt for someone else - anyone, really - who isn't a white English man: they're so last century.

Duffy's a fine poet, and she writes real poems too. She has a genuine readership and children as well as adults like her (or are told to at school, at least). She's an extremely good choice. But who would have dared to select a man? What part does box-ticking politics have to play in selecting a modern Laureate?

= She is a (...) poet who (...) imagin(...(e))s (...) human experience(s) (...(and))emotion(...)

or even: She is a poet.

It's easier to criticise than to do, but doesn't the man puff up?

Never mind, she's good. Long may she sing out.

I just heard the news on NPR and was about to post it here but the quick Sphere was way ahead of me. In a short search ('cause I'm supposed to be working) I could not find any poems - does anyone have a link?

PS: In answer to question above, the last great ceremonial poem by a Laureate was Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. "

What a thrill!
A woman instead of a man!
And what's more, one
Who's Scottish, Catholic, a sometime dyke
And solid working class stock.
I like!

Simon Armitage can get on his bike
Roger McGough can sod off.
It's not that I bear any animus here
To either chap, but a PL who's female and queer,
In Britain, 2009 - well, it's about bloody time!
It's good for the country and poetry too
That the long long line
From Dryden to now of middle-aged middle class blokes
Was broke.

Woohoo, you go girl!
And when
You pen
Your ode to the sale of a royal commode
Or the Queen's new dress
Or the wedding of one of the minor princesses
We, your constituency,
The gals, the gays, those who have it both ways
Or no way at all will be of immense good cheer.
So here, raise a glass to a classy dame:
Our sparkly new
Poet Laureate:
Carol, your name's in the frame,
The drinks are on you.

Here's one of her sonnets:

Prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

In answer to question above, the last great ceremonial poem by a Laureate was Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.

Blimey, I hope we don't have to wait another 150 years for a decent poem.

In answer to question above, the last great ceremonial poem by a Laureate was Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.

What about Motion's rap for Prince Willy?

Better stand back,
here's a taste and decency attack.
But the second in line
is cringing into his Pimm's
etc.

Honestly, I don't think that had anything to do with it. There was another guy who was all the "standard" things - and he was as much up for winning it as Duffy was.

There was another guy who was all the "standard" things - and he was as much up for winning it as Duffy was.

You mean Armitage? But he didn't win it, did he, so he wasn't 'up for it' as much as Duffy - unless by 'up for it' you mean eager in which case I fail to see your point entirely. What are you talking about?

What I mean, is, he was for a very long time actually considered ahead of her. What you seemed to be saying was that it was a political decision to choose her, which judging by the make-up of both the Conservative and Labour parties recently doesn't seem to be the case anywhere else.

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Mrs Scrooge

Seven poets give verse advice to the new Laureate...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8025269.stm

I think she probably got the job because she's the best poet writing in Britain today.
If you don't believe me, take a look at 'Prayer' above, or google 'Warming Her Pearls'. Also look at Peter's links.

Well said, David. Although I lack the synopsis to substantiate it, I suspect that she is head and shoulders above the rest, both in terms of craft and my favourite new criterion, i.e. poems that say something.

So let me take this unique opportunity too say that she is worthy of being singled out as Britain's formost exponent of the poetic arts and never mind, as it were, the bollocks.

Although I lack the synopsis to substantiate it, I suspect that she is head and shoulders above the rest

So, Peter, what you're saying is that you can't put her in context but she's still the greatest living British poet. I would disagree, but she's probably the best person for the job. She ticks a number of boxes:

1.She's certainly good, and a 'real' poet.
2.She's read by children, whether they like it or not.
3.She's genuinely famous and promotes herself: a more public poet than most.
4.She's not a white more-or-less heterosexual man, again.

So, I agree when you say that

she is worthy of being singled out as Britain's formost exponent of the poetic arts and never mind, as it were, the bollocks.

but what part did (4), or as you say the 'bollocks', have to do with it? Why else did the powers that be change the appointment from life to ten years if not to 'raise the profile of poetry' or something like that? Surely one way to change the public profile of poetry is to tick as many demographic boxes as possible over a short period of time. As far as I care, I'm glad she is the new Poet Laureate, but I wonder if it would be possible now to pick a heterosexual, white, middle-class English male that ticks no other boxes. This isn't a chauvinistic rant, God forbid.

I remember a poem about, I think, a flasher with a 'blue root' in a hand. It left an impression, years ago. What is it? Does anyone know? I'd love to see that one again.

Duffy's elegy for U.A. Fanthorpe:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...arol-ann-duffy

There's also an article by her:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...-poet-laureate

Duncan

Rory - the decision to change the PL's terms and conditions was made for the appointment of Motion, not to pave the way for Duffy.

David and Peter - I second and third your respective emotions.

Duncan - lovely poem from Duffy.

Rory, I make-a de little joke, you see.

'Never mind the bollocks' is a common vernacular phrase that can hardly have passed you by. It's also part of the title of an album by the Sex Pistols. It effectively 'means', or references, ignoring the irrelevant and/or idle chit-chat (or pallid imitations, in the case of the Sex Pistols). Your category 4 falls neatly or messily into all that. The sexual connotation, while absent from the common usage of the phrase, makes for a pun in this case of an appointment from the distaff ranks, see?

So much more fun when jokes are explained, innit.

Today's New York Times has an article:

After 341 years....

Lesbian Poet Laureates of the World Unite!

I have been a fan of Duffy's writing for years, so I am pleased to see her getting the recognition, even if some of the duties associated with the post are rather problematic.

Susan

She asked for the 600 bottles of sherry up front, haha. Andrew Motion never collected his, for some reason.

Duffy says “I think poetry should be controversial. It should be challenging, and make you see the world differently.”

Yes.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle6207437.ece

Peter - Your joke registered! I have no idea why you think it didn't...

Clive - I know. And I think Duffy's a fine, fine poet, completely suited to the role. I suppose I wanted to spark a debate: part of that role is 'promoting' poetry among the wider population, and for that reason as much as any other they surely had to pick a woman this time, or at any rate not another white, middle-class, heterosexual male. I don't think that's a bad thing - far from it - but it is a thing.

Duffy should probably have had it last time, but I'm glad she didn't because we would not have had Motion's ode to Princess Margaret, the scintillating rap for William, etc. Though it alliterates perfectly, I can't imagine Tony Harrison sticking the boot into 'Di-deifying Duffy'. But, with reference to the line quoted in Terese's post above, will she find room to be 'controversial' or 'challenging' in her required poems? That would really be something. Or will she just pump out tired obviously-commissioned drivel like the last incumbent and most of his predecessors?

I have posted this on the Fanthorpe thread, but it belongs here too.

Duffy's elegy for Fanthorpe is charming, and it bodes well for her role as Poet Laureate. She was being interviewed when she got the news of Fanthorpe's death. See:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009...-poet-laureate

She's shown her willingness to use poetry in public debate before:

"When an exam-board official moved that a poem of hers be banned from the curriculum because it showed too much sympathy for a violent individual, she wrote a fine sonnet in response, reminding the reader of how much knife crime there is in Shakespeare."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/c...-Laureate.html

Duncan

I like Duffy's stuff but have one gripe which got aired today:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle6221677.ece - 2nd letter down. I was avidly listening to her thoughts on two radio interviews, and then... what a disappointment each time.

[Yes, I've been away from the Sphere for some time, trying to stop the business that is my livelihood from rotting to dust, but it's still wafting away in what little sunlight there is... I shall be a hermit philosopher eating the air promise-cramm'd.]

Christopher Whitby

Yes, I read your letter this morning.
I thought exactly the same when they showed her on TV reading 'Prayer'; in fact I said to my wife, even I could read it better than that.
Congrats: it's very hard to get published there.
(Last time I had a letter published in The Times it was a comment on the influence of promotional credit on retailers' Christmas sales, and that was years ago.)

Christoher Whitby, you are quite right. She does read badly. And she gets no better. Of course the flat accent doesn't help but she could try harder. I, on the contrary, in spite of my common as dirt estuary, read jolly well. Sometimes I am so touched with the beauty of my own verse that I feel quite.... affected. It's better to read like Dylan Thomas and go right over the top than to mumble into your belly. I have heard Robert Graves (brilliant), Larkin (very good in spiteof what he says) and Seamas Heaney (likewise very good). Actually the Irish are usually good. I can't think of a dud. The late Ursula Fanthorpe with her partner Rosie Bailey read with wit and elan. Wendy Cope, though not, if she will forgive me, naturally gifted that way, reads with care and attention. Carol Ann really ought to TRY HARDER. Dammit, Stevie Smith would SING her verses. Sounded quite mad of course but that's OK.

Roger McGough reads very well, But of course he is a performer. We ALL ought to be performers. It's a kind of pissy superiority not to be.

Actually, I've heard Carol Ann, in an Irish pub, fairly well oiled, read much better. It may be shyness. I don't have much of that but I DID when I was a boy. You ought to get over it.

Christopher, I wish your business well. Bankrupcy is no joke, as I well know. It's when the buggers start looking over your house... that's when you REALLY need a wife.

I don't know if the New York Times can be counted on to publish a representative poem (see Maryann's link), but ...Viagra jokes?

John,

McGough reads his stuff superbly, but Duffy writes her stuff superbly, or some of the time anyway. I know what I prefer. Larkin once said that if anyone reads his poems aloud they should do so as though they are giving a stranger directions in the street. I like that.

Rory