Kumquats and educashun

[callmemadam]

The whole of Radio 4's Front Row programme this evening was devoted to the poet Tony Harrison, who is coming up for seventy and ought to be Poet Laureate. The son of a baker, from a home without books and with parents who were 'inarticulate', he went on to study classics, translate Greek drama for the National Theatre and become a major poet. At his grammar school he was banned from reading Keats aloud in class because of his strong Yorkshire accent. Ironic, considering that Keats was snobbishly looked down on in his own lifetime because he spoke like a Cockney. Harrison has kept his accent and his fondness for his roots; this irritates some people, who think he should have 'got over it' and ceased to be chippy. I've admired his poetry for years and this is a favourite:



In the interview Harrison said that his academic success was due to the 1944 Education Act and six scholarships. How many children today, coming from working class backgrounds, have the opportunity of learning Latin & Greek? The study of classics will soon be as exclusive a privilege as it was before universal education. Where are the Tony Harrisons of the future?

Comments

[white_hart]

There are plenty of us from middle-class homes full of books who never had the opportunity to study classics, either; I could, theoretically, have studied it at university without previous knowledge of Latin or Greek, but there was no chance before that. Although I did read Homer and Virgil in translation as part of an English degree...

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Latin has been struggling in schools since the 1970s. Today, even Oxford has to accept candidates who have done no Greek. The poor souls have to do a crash course when they get there. I'm not a classicist myself; just did O-Level Latin, but I think people should have the chance.

[white_hart]

I would have loved the opportunity to study Latin, even if only to GCSE, and not just because they did it in all the school stories!

[hartleyhare.livejournal.com]

Tony Harrison coming up for seventy! Aaargh. I remember reading his Collected Poems when I was in the Lower Sixth, and loving 'Book Ends' and the two 'Them & [uz]' poems (which I do with sixth-formers now, and get baffled looks in return).

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realised he was that old.
Book Ends was read on the programme, not surprisingly. He's both brilliant and accessible, which I suppose is why he's been on the curriculum for a while now.

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I love Tony Harrison, and every time I see a kumquat I think of him. We had a teacher in my sixth form who actually brought in a box of kumquats when we were reading that poem because she said we couldn't properly understand it unless we knew what they tasted like. She was quite right.

My favourite of his poems though, is V, about the graffiti on tomb stones in a Leeds graveyard. I think it's wonderful how he builds up the anger at the way the graves have been covered in swear words, but at the same time manages to make those swear words part of the poetry, and quite melodious and natural. Like in these stanzas:

The language of this graveyard ranges from
a bit of Latin for a former Mayor
or those who laid their lives down at the Somme,
the hymnal fragments and the gilded prayer,

how people 'fell asleep in the Good Lord',
brief chisellable bits from the good book
and rhymes whatever length they could afford,
to CUNT, PISS, SHIT and (mostly) FUCK!

Anyway, I could go on for ages about how great Tony Harrison is, but he is great. It's nice to meet another fan.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It's nice to meet another fan.
Likewise! I'm also keen on V. Not all his stage work is that successful, IMO, but I love the poetry.

Re:

[(Anonymous)]

The very concept of a Poet Laureate is discredited nowadays since it evokes the heresy of Hack Work poetry written to order and not inspiration. A Poet Laureate to us is a Lost Leader one who has sold out to the establishment, and Browning's lament 'Just for a handful of silver he left us' blends with the sort of contempt voiced in Robert Graves' The Laureate

Once long ago here was a poet, who died
See how remorse twitching his mouth proclaims
It was a natural death, but suicide
(Wykes, David. A Preface to Dryden. Longman, 1977).

Firstly if you know Tony Harrison's poetry you should know that he can never become laureate and rightly so. He doesn't believe in the poet laureateship as an institution, nor in the monarchy. He put his views forward rather sharply when the question arose upon the demise of the late Ted Hughes.

Hartleyhare, I believe you're referring to Selected Poems. The Collected has appeared for the first time. Hence the rare recitals and interviews.

www.rehanqayoom.blogspot.com

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I am very well aware that Harrison scorns the post of Poet Laureate. When I said he 'ought' to be the laureate, I meant that he is the outstanding poet around today and much better than Andrew Motion.

Re:

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, of course. In that sense he should be Poet Laureate. He is my favourite living poet. Pity I've been unable to meet him especially now because I was attacked recently and broke my leg and jaw but thankfully I'm able to get around a bit now so I might just get to finally meet him. He is definitely better than Motion, there's no comparison.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear you've been set upon. I looked at your blog: I liked what you wrote about London churches.