RETWEETING THE LAUREATE
~ Posted by Emma Hogan, January 10th 2012
When a poet laureate writes about an event that's in the headlines, the poem makes headlines of its own. Over the past few days the front pages of Britain's newspapers were jubilant that two men had at last been convicted of the murder, 18 years ago, of the London teenager Stephen Lawrence. On Friday, the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy published "Stephen Lawrence". It caught the public mood.
Politicians, celebrities and literary critics were quick to express their approval. The Scottish culture minister, Patricia Ferguson, told the Scotsman that Duffy's work was "short and powerful, but also a very poignant poem." Stephen Fry tweeted "Now that's why we have a poet laureate. Congratulations Carol Ann Duffy." The Guardian’s literary editor Claire Armistead, also tweeting, found the poem "unbearably moving." The link was widely retweeted.
Others were less impressed. In their eyes, a poem has to be able to stand on its own, irrespective of the news cycle. Reading poems requires reflection more than immediate assent. The poet and critic Ian Patterson, writing in the London Review of Books yesterday, hears "media headlines and politicians’ soundbites" in the short lines, and crushingly argues that it is not just bad poetry, but dishonest to boot; that Duffy has managed “to sentimentalise, simplify and distort a tragic story and a political problem.”
It's a dilemma that poet laureates face: they react to public events, but good poems aren't written to be instantly retweeted.
Politicians, celebrities and literary critics were quick to express their approval. The Scottish culture minister, Patricia Ferguson, told the Scotsman that Duffy's work was "short and powerful, but also a very poignant poem." Stephen Fry tweeted "Now that's why we have a poet laureate. Congratulations Carol Ann Duffy." The Guardian’s literary editor Claire Armistead, also tweeting, found the poem "unbearably moving." The link was widely retweeted.
Others were less impressed. In their eyes, a poem has to be able to stand on its own, irrespective of the news cycle. Reading poems requires reflection more than immediate assent. The poet and critic Ian Patterson, writing in the London Review of Books yesterday, hears "media headlines and politicians’ soundbites" in the short lines, and crushingly argues that it is not just bad poetry, but dishonest to boot; that Duffy has managed “to sentimentalise, simplify and distort a tragic story and a political problem.”
It's a dilemma that poet laureates face: they react to public events, but good poems aren't written to be instantly retweeted.
Emma Hogan wrote the Notes on a Voice for T.S. Eliot
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