No rhyme, but first female Laureate gives her reasons for taking job

Published on Friday 1 May 2009 22:00

BRITAIN'S first female Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, said she had accepted the post yesterday to recognise "great women poets" of the past and to make her 13-year-old daughter proud.

Duffy, 53, is both the first woman and first Scottish-born poet to take the 340-year-old Royal post. Succeeding Andrew Motion, she will hold the title for ten years.

As a signal of her independence, she will give away her 5,000 annual payment to fund a poetry prize. She will not write royal poems to order, because "no self-respecting poet" would – though she may pen one for Duke of Edinburgh's 88th birthday in June, she conceded.

Duffy is the author of numerous award-winning poetry collections, plays, fairy tales and poetry for children. She is one of Britain's best-loved and most public poets, with works like Prayer and Valentine particularly well known.

She has come to the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) every year since 2000. "We know she will make an exceptional Poet Laureate with her warm and witty, inspirational and provocative words and we wish her every success," a festival spokeswoman said.

Yesterday it was confirmed she is coming to Scotland for the Word Festival in Aberdeen and the EIBF in August, as well as performing a children's show at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh as part of the Fringe.

Duffy was born in Glasgow, but left aged five, reflecting the experience in a poem, Originally. She lives in Manchester and is creative director of the writing school of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Duffy, who is openly gay, said she was "honoured and humbled" to take the job held by 22 men from William Wordsworth to Ted Hughes.

"Poetry is all around us, all of the time, whether in song or in speech or on the page, and we turn to it when events, personal or public, matter most."

With the appointment widely reported, she chose to confirm it herself on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme, ahead of the official announcement.

She thought "long and hard" before taking it. "I look on it as a recognition of the great woman poets we have writing now," she said. "I've decided to accept it for that reason."

Duffy was said to be the front-runner for the post in 1999, but was said to have been passed over because of the possible reaction to a lesbian laureate. She said later she would not write poems for royal weddings.

"I think we've all grown up over the past ten years," she said. "Sexuality is something that is celebrated now we have civil partnerships and it's fantastic that I'm an openly gay writer."

The job traditionally comes with a "butt of sack" – which translates as about 600 bottles of sherry. Duffy commented: "Andrew hasn't had his yet, so I've asked for mine up front."

Duffy said she would not be required to mark royal occasions. She said: "The Ministry of Culture and the palace made it very clearthat there is no expectation or requirement at all to write royal poems. I don't have to write anything about anything if I don't want to."

Scottish culture minister Mike Russell called her appointment a welcome milestone. He said she was "an inspiring and distinctive poetic voice... she has a unique and accessible style that adds so much to our cultural landscape and speaks creatively to a range of contemporary issues."

DUFFY'S POETRY

PLAINSONG

Stop. Along this path, in phrases of light,

trees sing their leaves. No Midas touch

has turned the wood to gold, late in the year

when you pass by, suddenly sad, straining

to remember something you're sure you knew …

It is almost impossible to be here and yet

you kneel, no one's child, absolved by late sun

through the branches of a wood, distantly

the evening bell reminding you, Home, Home,

Home, and the stone in your palm telling the time

TRANSLATING THE ENGLISH, 1989

'… and much of the poetry, alas, is lost in translation …'

Wheel-clamp. Dogs. Vagrants. A tour of our wonderful

capital city is not to be missed. The Fergie,

The Princess Di and the football hooligan, truly you will

like it here, Squire. Also we can be talking crack, smack

and Carling Black Label if we are so inclined. Don't

drink the

…

Here we go. We are liking

a smashing good time like estate agents and Neighbours,

also Brookside for we are allowed four Channels.