Dave, Carol Ann Duffy is an amazing poet and a great model for what a 21st century poet laureate should be. Her very person [female, Scottish, homosexual] is challenging to the traditional social status of poets in Britain, and her poems continue to challenge her readers. By affording her a greater audience as Poet Laureate, the UK has assured that these challenges to society will not go unheard. I do think, though, it took far too long for the first female PL.
Nathan, I do think you’re right that Americans think of political poetry in a very different way from others. I would think the negative view of combining poetry and politics comes from the more transcendental tradition of Emerson and Whitman. [Though Whitman wrote ”O Captain, My Captain,” so there’s some overlap there. In contrast, you’d be hard-pressed to find an ancient Greek poem that ISN’T about politics in some way. It wasn’t only accepted: it was expected.
