It might seem odd to be talking Canada on July 4, but the news from that mighty nation has been good of late, regarding the visiting Royal newlyweds. Despite a few separatist rabble-rousers, their tour of Canada, and especially Montreal and Quebec City, has been delightful, and full of genuine warmth and curiosity. William has spoken French, and Kate has expressed interest in Anne of Green Gables. They have met the Huron chief. They have sailed the St. Lawrence, that great river. They've planted trees, welcomed new citizens - and carried it all off with ease, and charm, and energy. Canada will remain loyal for the next century, if it keeps going like this - and no reason to think it won't. Hopefully, this visit will inspire people in the UK to holiday in Canada.
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....
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When I went to Canada ten years ago, though, I looked for more interesting sights, such as the Plains of Abraham battlefield in Quebec City and the balcony of Montreal City Hall where de Gaulle made his notorious speech.