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Poets Win Prizes Too

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Poetry is sometimes regarded as the poor relation among the arts when it comes to handing out honours and awards. However, in late 2011 and early 2012, a number of poets won accolades. First place go to that rare award, a poetry knighthood. In the New Year’s Honours, Geoffrey Hill, currently Oxford Professor of Poetry, became Sir Geoffrey in recognition of his long and distinguished career as poet and literary critic.

A little further down the royal scale but equally well merited, Dannie Abse, the doyen of Welsh poetry, becomes a CBE, as does broadcaster Clive James, who commands considerable stature, especially in the USA, as a poet.

Also among the royal awards, Jo Shapcott was the recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, for her outstanding body of work, especially as reflected in her latest book, Of Mutability (Faber & Faber), which carries references – deliberately oblique – to her struggle against breast cancer.

Finally, the Scottish poet John Burnside was the recipient of both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes for his latest book, Black Cat Bone (Jonathan Cape). The latter award aroused some controversy owing to the withdrawal of two members of the shortlist, who questioned the ethics of investment firm Aurum, one of the sponsors. How often the words ‘poetry’ and ‘trouble’ seem to border on the synonymous.

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