The Poet Laureate Speaks...
Cleat Eastwood
Posts: 7,508
A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
We've had our pockets picked,
the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,
Olympian names.
We want more cycle lanes.
Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
Valegro (Dujardin's horse).
We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.
We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.
Carol Ann Duffy
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
We've had our pockets picked,
the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,
Olympian names.
We want more cycle lanes.
Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
Valegro (Dujardin's horse).
We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.
We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.
Carol Ann Duffy
The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
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Comments
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Yeah, the Tour de France had Lesley Garrett, the Olympics gets Duffy.0
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Zingzang wrote:Yeah, the Tour de France had Lesley Garrett, the Olympics gets Duffy.
From the evidence presented, both were dire.0 -
Monkeypump wrote:Zingzang wrote:Yeah, the Tour de France had Lesley Garrett, the Olympics gets Duffy.
From the evidence presented, both were dire.
So you don't like literature but you love the Spice Girls.
Interesting.0 -
jim453 wrote:Monkeypump wrote:Zingzang wrote:Yeah, the Tour de France had Lesley Garrett, the Olympics gets Duffy.
From the evidence presented, both were dire.
So you don't like literature but you love the Spice Girls.
Interesting.
Fortunately, that example isn't a great example of 'literature'. But good skills on the assumption and generalisation front - well done.
Personally, I think Julia Donaldson is more worthy of her position than Duffy.
And I wouldn't say I loved the Spice Girls, but they fulfilled the role expected of them at the Closing Ceremony.0
