Bravo Ministry of Culture! It only took 400 years, but Carol Ann Duffy is Britain’s first woman poet laureate. The origins of the laureateship are somewhat hazy, according to the Guardian, Ben Jonson is believed to have been the first when the role (along with a pension of 100 marks, and the ‘butt of sack’ of 630 bottles of sherry a year) was conferred on him by James I.
I have read Duffy’s poetry for years and her volumes stayed on the bedside table, able to be picked up and pondered between and during other reading projects. ‘The World’s Wife’, is a favourite; this collection of poems is told in the voice of a wife of a great historical figure, from Mrs Aesop, Midas, Darwin, Quasimodo, Pontious Pilate, King Kong. There is Mrs Rip Van Winkle enjoying the freedom to travel and paint while her husband slumbers on: ‘Until the day / I came home with pastel of Niagara / and he was sitting up in bed rattling Viagra.’ Frau Freud analyses her over-exposure to ‘ding-a-ling, member and jock, / of todger and nudger and percy and cock,’ and confesses with irony to being, ‘as au fait with Hunt-the Salami / as Ms M. Lewinsky.’
And from Standing Female Nude:
‘Six hours like this for a few francs.
Belly nipple arse in the window light,
he drains the colour from me.
Further to the right,
Madame. And do try to be still.
I shall be represented analytically and hung
in great museums.
The bourgeoisie will cooat such an image of a river-whore.
They call it Art.’
She is acerbic, sharp and funny as all hell. She is going to be a brilliant laureate.
Comments
We’ll have to agree to disagree on that (and I speak as a poetry fan). And I think Andrew Motion is pretty dire.
If her appointment means “best poet in the country today” or “really very good poet” then of course bravo to her. I think she’s excellent. But a “brilliant laureate”? I’m not sure about that. I think I would rate poets more if they turned the role down. It’s an outdated institution and I can’t really see anyone emerging from it with any artistic credit or credibility.
I’m a big fan too and mentioned her in my post today :)
Mr S … she did actually say she wouldn’t have accepted it if she’d been offered it instead of Andrew Motion (as many people felt she should have been) as she didn’t want to have to write a poem for Edward & Sophie … which I think proves her excellent discernment and she deserves some credit for that fact alone.
She’s funny & smart, <>and<> now has an entire ‘butt of sack’ cask of sherry? – I want to go visit her!
* any idea if she enjoys the company of sherry-loving stalkers?
I am afraid you are right about the minority pursuit of poetry. But thats why I think Duffy gives poetry lovers hope, she is not ‘establishment’ and will make it her own. She will get airtime because of her official role.
Motion, the incumbent has proven this can work by spending ages talking to kids in schools about poetry.
It is a very important and worthy role.
Mr LS, I am not sure about rejecting it for reasons of street cred (a la Larkin). There is much to be said for having a people’s poet (which of course is what the role has morphed into rather than the original royal court jester type deal).
Also UA Fanthorpe sadly died this weekend. Another spectacular poetess who was a friend and mentor of Duffy. She was considered for the role a few years ago but was passed over for Andrew Motion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/30/ua-fanthorpe-poet-dies
I think I actually cheered a little when I saw her on the news. Mark looked at me like I’d gone insane. I couldn’t explain. What a choice!!!!!
Poetry is such a minority pursuit now that the idea of a “people’s poet” is a contradiction in terms. And Larkin didn’t decline the role of Laureate out of street cred, he did it because he was no longer a going concern as a poet by then and his output had dwindled to nothing.
GI – it’s easy to say you’d turn down a role you were never offered. Not sure I’m convinced by that either. And, like I said, I like Carole Ann Duffy as a poet but I personally think that role is ripe for being axed.