W.S. Merwin is the new US Poet Laureate. He will be the 17th since the post was first established in 1937.
As I read this announcement, I wondered at the possible archaicness of the position. Do poets matter anymore ? What do poet laureates do anyway ? Isn’t this an ancient custom cast down from the centuries when getting monarchy to provide you with a stipend and a title was the only way for an artist to survive ? Weren’t these people then supposed to compose works in praise of the kingdom and monarchy ? What do the modern poet laureates do ? Are they supposed to compose works in praise of the country and the president ?
In the US, the position is associated with the Library of Congress. Why does the world’s largest library appoint a poet laureate ? The Library of Congress is the research arm of the Congress, the federal bastion of cultural heritage. So, by appointing a poet laureate, the Library is actually appointing a poet of the people (the Congress being elected by the people). The US poet laureate is actually called “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry” unlike the UK equivalent which is just “Poet Laureate”. Also unlike the British counterpart on which the role was originally modelled, US poet laureates are not appointed for life, but annually, though many serve for a few years.
The US poet laureates don’t have much to do when it comes to specifics. According to the job description: “The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress serves as the nation’s official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.” The unspecified job description apparently so confused William Carlos Williams, that he never showed up. According to a fascinating article about the job, published in the LA Times back in 1991, another poet laureate, Anthony Hecht, complained that all he got were letters from the public demanding to know how they could get published. Mark Strand, the poet laureate interviewed for the LA Times article says: “… there isn’t much popular interest in poetry, or good literature. The junk people read is appalling. What’s her name . . . Danielle Steel? She couldn’t write her way out of a paper bag. Her use of language is a joke. She’s just symptomatic, though, of a lot that’s going on at the sub-literary level of the culture. Unfortunately, even with the title of poet laureate, there’s not much I can do about it.”
US poet laureates are paid $35,000 a year, a sum funded by the foundation of a philanthropist, Archer M. Huntington, rather than us taxpayers. The stipend started in 1985 and has not changed since, though the newer laureates are given an additional $5,000 for travel expenses. Most poets today earn their living from their daytime jobs teaching at a university.
US poet laureates are not required to compose any works in praise of government works or officials. Robert Penn Warren, the first to hold the title of Poet Laureate (after it was changed in 1985 from the old ‘Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress’) explicitly declared his disinclination to write “any poems to the greater glory of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.”. But Howard Nemerov volunteered odes on the 200th anniversary of the Congress and launch of the space shuttle, Atlantis. Billy Collins, the poet laureate from 2001-2003, famous for his anti-war protest during the Iraq War, was asked to compose a poem to be read in front of a special joint session of the Congress after 9/11. Poets are not even invited to read at US Presidential inaugurations. Only three US presidents – Kennedy, Clinton and Obama – have asked poets to read at their inauguration, and those poets were not even poet laureates at the time.
That said, the poem that launched my reading poetry to Maya, came from an anthology edited by Robert Hass, from his column in Washington Post during his tenure as poet laureate. The Library of Congress website says: “Each Laureate brings a different emphasis to the position. Joseph Brodsky initiated the idea of providing poetry in airports, supermarkets and hotel rooms. Maxine Kumin started a popular series of poetry workshops for women at the Library of Congress. Gwendolyn Brooks met with elementary school students to encourage them to write poetry. Rita Dove brought together writers to explore the African diaspora through the eyes of its artists. She also championed children’s poetry and jazz with poetry events. Robert Hass organized the “Watershed” conference that brought together noted novelists, poets and storytellers to talk about writing, nature and community.”
According to the NYT article which announced the news of Merwin’s appointment, Merwin said that, “he wants to emphasize his ‘great sympathy with native people and the languages and literature of native peoples,’ and his ‘lifelong concern with the environment’”.
I’m glad for that emphasis. The Native Americans, the people of the First Nations (as they’re called in Canada), are people without a voice. Their names, their languages, their culture have vanished or are heading rapidly in that direction. When I was in Banff and looking at the mountains, I was struck once again, by how little of the original names the mountains remain , how so many of the mountains are named after the immigrants to the New World. One very impressive mountain is even named after an Egyptian pharoah!
The stars emerge one
by one into the names
that were last found for them
far back in other
darkness no one remembers
by watchers whose own
names were forgotten
later in the dark – from Nocturne, W.S. Merwin
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