Translating the British by Carol Ann Duffy has been in my mind

Since Saturday the poem Translating the British by Carol Ann Duffy has been in my mind.

On a first reading it appears to be just doggerel, scorned and jeered at by journalist Nick Cohen and his coterie.

Is it possible that someone as sophisticated and sensitive as Carol Ann Duffy would produce poetry little better than a Madonna lyric (a list of names with McGonagallesque rhymes attached viz "They had style, they had grace; Rita Hayworth gave good face; Lauren, Katherine, Lana too; Bette Davis, we love you" etc).

And then today, re-reading Translating the British, it occurred to me that Carol Ann Duffy had produced in poetry a satire of Danny Boyle's left-wing usurpation of the Opening Ceremony.

Sedition of the seditionaires is very deep.

http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/olympian-poem-by-carol-ann-duffy.html

Olympian poem by Carol Ann Duffy

It is a matter of course that a poem written by the official Poet Laureate immediately enters the canon of twenty-first century English literature.

Therefore the Olympian poem by Carol Ann Duffy, appearing on the front page of today's Guardian, deserves serious study (you might need to click on the image to enlarge it).

The last line quotes the Chancellor George Osborne. 

The poem needs to be read several times before the meanings become apparent - and they will not be the immediate conclusions that this is about government spending.

Nick Cohen on his Twitter site is indulging in sniggering:

Prince from Western Libya

This has been going through my mind all this week:

Aristomenis, son of Menelaos,
the prince from Western Libya,
was generally liked in Alexandria
during the ten days he spent there.

In keeping with his name,
his dress was also suitably Greek.
He received honours gladly,
but he didn't solicit them;
he was unassuming.

He bought Greek books,
especially history and philosophy.
Above all he was a man of few words.
It got round that he must be a profound thinker,
and men like that naturally don't speak very much.

He wasn't a profound thinker or anything at all -
just a piddling, laughable man.
He assumed a Greek name, dressed like the Greeks,
learned to behave more or less like a Greek;
and all the time he was terrified he'd spoil
his reasonably good image
by coming out with barbaric howlers in Greek
and the Alexandrians, in their usual way,
would start to make fun of him, vile people that they are.

This was why he limited himself to a few words,
terribly careful of syntax and pronounciation;
and he was driven almost out of his mind, having
so much talk bottled up inside him,

Constantine P Cavafy

Although he wrote mostly in Greek, Cavafy has had an enormous impact on English poetry.

NOTE: Professor Starkey admitted on Question Time last night that the LSE "sells" worthless degrees to overseas students. The director of the LSE, Howard Davis, has resigned because of an association with Libyan blood money. Even Shami Chakrabarti, head of Liberty and member of the LSE Council, is tainted by this association.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12644802