Eyewear congratulates Professor Don Paterson, Scotland's leading male poet, on his youthful win of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He must be one of the youngest winners - it's an honour often reserved for elder poets.
The poet put forward must have the laureate's blessing, and Scotland's leading female poet, Carol Ann Duffy, clearly felt an affinity. Besides the Scottish, Picador and generational links, Duffy and Paterson were key mainstream poets of the 90s and 00s who saw off the threat of Heaney and Muldoon and created a new populist vernacular style.
Paterson, who doesn't - judging by his editorial and critical writings - much like the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Prynne, or amateur and anti-war poets, is as admired in the UK as he is controversial. Is he the new king of the cats or prince in waiting? Surely, his North American reputation is set to grow. I predict he will win the Nobel Prize for literature before 2020.
The poet put forward must have the laureate's blessing, and Scotland's leading female poet, Carol Ann Duffy, clearly felt an affinity. Besides the Scottish, Picador and generational links, Duffy and Paterson were key mainstream poets of the 90s and 00s who saw off the threat of Heaney and Muldoon and created a new populist vernacular style.
Paterson, who doesn't - judging by his editorial and critical writings - much like the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Prynne, or amateur and anti-war poets, is as admired in the UK as he is controversial. Is he the new king of the cats or prince in waiting? Surely, his North American reputation is set to grow. I predict he will win the Nobel Prize for literature before 2020.
Comments
Hmm, is it me being thick, or is it a fact that these two highness loving luvvies know their place in the grander scheme, and are being a useful and tiny cog on Her Majesty's behalf?
Would a non-highness loving working-class radical who chose not to endorse the Crown, ever be rewarded with all the gongs by their peers in the way the author of God's Gift To Women, is?
He doesn't like 'amatuer' poets and is dead dead serious about his own stuff that his pals with OBE's wax orgasmically over. And it is interesting to note, poets like Sir Andrew, will be remembered long after they are acting no more in the realm of light and life, hey?
Happy new year.
Swords, Earl of Desmond
But good to see you posting Todd, and I hope the new year treats you kindly.