Skip to main content

Makar Up As They Go Along

No one seems to know who will or should fill the inestimably vast boots of Edwin Morgan, who was the greatest living Scottish poet, when he died.  His position as Makar is now open, but as it was custom-made for him, no one else is quite right (yet) for it, and new tailorings need to be applied, it seems.  Enter the usual roll call of prize-winning names, as per The Guardian piece.  Not mentioned in the Guardian piece were Roddy Lumsden, Richard Price, John Glenday, Jen Hadfield, WN Herbert, AB Jackson, or Robert Crawford - but adding them to the list that was given, of Don Paterson, Kathleen Jamie, Douglas Dunn, Liz Lochhead, Robin Robertson, Jackie Kay, and John Burnside - shows the richness of the potential short-list.  I suspect either Dunn, Paterson or Robertson will get this, ultimately - but Herbert follows most closely in the steps of Morgan as inventive explorer.
Labels:

Comments

Poetry Pleases! said…
Dear Todd

If I were the Makar Maker I would definitely give it to Kathleen Jamie. However, since I don't have a drop of Scottish blood in my veins, I don't suppose that my opinions will count for much!

Best wishes from Simon
Tue Jan 04, 01:17:00 pm 2011
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A  poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Post a Comment
Read more

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...
15 comments
Read more

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more