[New-Poetry] Re: laureate

[jforjames at aol.com]

Robin,
Scanning the list David Graham posted I note we have Jos Brodsky (defective Ruskie) and Charles Simic (Serb, aka Dušan "The Prose Poet" Simić) both non-natives on our list. 
Can the UK beat that?

Finnegan
-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com>
To: jforjames at aol.com
Sent: Mon, 5 May 2008 4:34 pm
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Re: laureate


<< 
Robin, can we Poet Laureate of ESL? 
>> 
 
Well, that question, when it comes to the last choice of the English pote lariat, is actually more complicated than it seems, as one of The Questions in the last round was whether colonials were allowed? 
 
Answer was no -- Santa Lucia may have the highest proportian of Nobels per head of the population, and Northern Ireland had a fairly high scoring rate when it came to poetic talent, but forget it. 
 
As to ESL -- let's get rap and Street speech out of the way first ... 
 
If there were an *English non-orthodox laureate, I suppose Lynton Kwasi Johnson or Tom Leonard for Scotand, but neither are ESL. 
 
About the only authentic laureate I can think of is Edwin Morgan (currently Scotland, tomorrow the World) and jeezus, he caused problems. 
 
When he was about to retire a few years ago, Glasgow University suddenly realised that his day job had him rated as a Senior Lecturer rather than a Professor, and it suddenly struck them that it might look a bit strange if Scotland's undoubtedly best living poet never got a Chair, so they hastily created a Personal Chair for him. 
 
Fair does, except that one of Eddie's few gestures towards Academic Respectability was an article called "Dryden's Drudgings", which I got smacked over the head for citing in 1966. 
 
Way it goes ... 
 
Robin  


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