Happy Poetry Month
Here's a short excerpt from Carol Ann Duffy's poem "The Long Queen," from her collection Feminine Gospels.
The Long Queen couldn't die.
Young when she bowed her head
for the cold weight of the crown, she'd looked
at the second son of the earl, the foreign prince,
the heir to the duke, the lord, the baronet, the count,
and taken Time for a husband. Long live the Queen.
What was she queen of? Women, girls
spinsters and hags, matrons, wet nurses,
witches, widows, wives, mothers of all these.
Her word of law was in their bones, in the graft
of their hands, in the wild kicks of their dancing.
No girl born who wasn't the Long Queen's always child.
Duffy is the most recent poet laureate of the UK, making her both the first woman and the first Scot to hold the position, as well as, to my knowledge, the first openly bisexual poet laureate. A lot of her work that I've read is kind of hit or miss for me, but there are always absolute gems to be found. She also writes quite a lot of poetry which is historically or mythologically inspired, and many poems which I think qualify as spec.
The Long Queen couldn't die.
Young when she bowed her head
for the cold weight of the crown, she'd looked
at the second son of the earl, the foreign prince,
the heir to the duke, the lord, the baronet, the count,
and taken Time for a husband. Long live the Queen.
What was she queen of? Women, girls
spinsters and hags, matrons, wet nurses,
witches, widows, wives, mothers of all these.
Her word of law was in their bones, in the graft
of their hands, in the wild kicks of their dancing.
No girl born who wasn't the Long Queen's always child.
Duffy is the most recent poet laureate of the UK, making her both the first woman and the first Scot to hold the position, as well as, to my knowledge, the first openly bisexual poet laureate. A lot of her work that I've read is kind of hit or miss for me, but there are always absolute gems to be found. She also writes quite a lot of poetry which is historically or mythologically inspired, and many poems which I think qualify as spec.