Re-launching the Laureate-ship
by and published in Edition Six of Pomegranate
Exactly what credentials are required for the next poet laureate is contentious business. Whilst the media have heaped great praise on Andrew Motion for championing poetry and spreading its appeal to the electorate, even including ‘educational tasks’, as Mark Lawson wrote in the Guardian (November 27, 2008), many poets and academics were not so gushing.
Criticism has been made about the quality of Motion’s poetry during his tenure, implying that his successor should be arguably more high-brow and more intellectually stimulating. True or false, the quality of the poetry should not be the chief focus of the role. There are many heavily qualified individuals in modern British poetry capable of writing great poems whilst in office, but, in that respect, they needn’t be poet laureate. Whatever the laureateship has been in the past, its role, following Motion’s laudable efforts, should be about spreading poetry and heightening its media presence.
Sadly, however academics and poets misrepresent public perception, poetry is neither glamorous nor popular. In the past ten years effort has been made by the state to increase the poetry profile and National Poetry Day and national competitions have been promoted in schools countrywide. For poetry to heighten its appeal, this must continue.
The next poet laureate should take this in mind. Appealing to generations of children and adults alike who, as is often bemoaned by the press, are becoming more and more disinterested in books, the task will not easily be accomplished, and the methods for achieving it will be widely debated. But putting in place somebody whose poetry is highly rated, who is a Forward Poetry Prize winner or is widely acclaimed by scholars, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will appeal to the whole country. The poet laureate shouldn’t be there to write to the converted, so to speak, but to spread poetry and make it accessible and appealing. Obscure verse destined for the bookshelves of English students and verse-fans, however emotive, meaningful or captivating, will not reach widely. The debate about Motion’s poetry (he himself even admitted that it had been ‘very, very damaging’ to his work’) and the poetic qualities of his successor are surely (to some extent) beside the point.
So the next poet laureate should be appealing, charismatic and hard-working; a champion of poetry as much as a poet. This is not to say the poetry can be bad, but widely appealing, above all accessible. The poet should use the post to promote the poetic cause. But whatever the outcome, and however successful the successor, there will always be critics, and the role certainly appears, as Motion exasperatedly declared, ‘thankless’.
Callan Davies
Callan Davies comes from the wilds of darkest Kent, Medway specifically, where we are given to understand wild dragons are constantly roaming which he makes it his business to boldly slay (split infinitive! – Ed) for the benefit of the proletariat. He is currently in his second-year at Exeter University, where he studies English.