I might not write a single word, admits the new Poet Laureate
Simon Armitage insists role is ‘ambassadorial’ – and says he would never put his name to a bad poem
SIMON ARMITAGE has been named the UK’S new Poet Laureate, joining an esteemed line that includes Lord Tennyson, William Wordsworth and Ted Hughes. But if you are eager to read his first poem, the wait may be long.
In an interview to mark the announcement, Mr Armitage said he might not be able to write anything.
“I simply don’t know what I’m going to produce, when I’m going to produce it or if I’m going to produce anything at
‘I’ve been made CBE, been given the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, so I’m hardly a rampant republican’
all. The role of Laureate is not necessarily about writing. It’s more about advocacy and initiatives and projects,” he said.
Asked to define what a Poet Laureate does, the 55-year-old Yorkshireman said it was “an ambassadorial role, a ceremonial role, where you get the opportunity to endorse poetry and speak up on behalf of it”.
In the public imagination, the Poet Laureate produces work to mark royal occasions. Ted Hughes, the last lifetime holder, took his relationship with the Crown seriously.
Carol Ann Duffy, who Mr Armitage succeeds, was accused of being a reluctant chronicler of royal events, preferring to write odes to gas meters and David Beckham’s torn Achilles, but did commemorate the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
However, there is no requirement to cover royal events, a fact reinforced by Theresa May when she telephoned Mr Armitage on Wednesday to bestow the position upon him.
“It is not in the job spec – there is absolutely no obligation to do that, and the Prime Minister made that clear to me as well,” said Mr Armitage, who until recently was professor of poetry at the University of Oxford.
“It is still a royal appointment… but I think it’s become a much more everyday, commonplace, domestic activity now in the workspace of poetry, and not just something that’s seen as it was in the old days as a duty or a requirement or an invitation to write about royal occasions.”
There will be no poem marking the arrival of baby Archie – “I think I might have missed that boat” – but Mr Armitage has no antipathy towards the Royal family. “I’ve been made CBE, been given the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, so I’m hardly a rampant republican,” he said.
Whether or not he writes any poems as Laureate will depend on when inspiration takes hold of him. “If I knew where to get these poems I’d go down there with a shopping trolley and get a load of them tomorrow,” he joked.
“Being a poet is sometimes a little bit like being lost on the moor in fog – you just look for the next landmark, head to it, and hope that it’s a poem.
“What I am absolutely confident about is that I’m not going to hand over anything to anybody that I’m not pleased with. In my view there is no worse gift to anybody than a bad poem.”
Other poets, including Wendy Cope and Benjamin Zephaniah, have said they would never take the job. “I think it’s sometimes a human defence mechanism to say you don’t want something you’re not going to be offered. Get your retaliation in early,” Mr Armitage said.
“From my own point of view, I’ve always seen this as the high point of the kind of writing that I do. In some ways I’ve been an apprentice to a kind of public poetry for three decades now.
“To that extent it seems to be that the role suits me in the way it might not suit other people.”
He plans to use the £5,750 honorarium to fund a prize or event promoting poetry on climate change, and is looking for financial backers.
“I just think it’s incredibly important that, like all art forms, poetry reacts to this situation. It is unignorable. We do have people who are writing climate change poetry and nature poetry, and I would like to try and orchestrate something that makes that more official and recognises it.
The post comes with a supply of sherry, which Mr Armitage said he may give away as prizes: “I can’t see myself getting through 700 bottles of sherry at home. If I do the work might take a little bit of a dip.”