Oxford controversy
It might be disappointing that Ruth Padel, the first woman appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford stepped down almost immediately after her election because of her admitted involvement in a smear campaign against her rival, Derek Walcott. Then again, it might not be. Poets haven't notoriously been the most judicious of people, why should today's most celebrated be any different?
Walcott has been accused of sexual harassment, Padel has been rumored to have been sexually involved with another writer who dogged Walcott—incestuous circles in poetry, no?
Here is an excerpt from a recent Ruth Padel poem, Giant Sable Antelope Would Like a Word With History (read the rest here: www.ruthpadel.com/pages/mother_of_pearl.htm):
I am invincible, being extinct. He brandishes
his pair of ring-ridged horns, arcing back
like sabres. But mine are one metre fifty.
Here is an excerpt from a Derek Walcott poem, The Sea Is History (read the rest here: www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19972
Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?
Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,
in that grey vault. The sea. The sea
has locked them up. The sea is History.
Walcott has been accused of sexual harassment, Padel has been rumored to have been sexually involved with another writer who dogged Walcott—incestuous circles in poetry, no?
Here is an excerpt from a recent Ruth Padel poem, Giant Sable Antelope Would Like a Word With History (read the rest here: www.ruthpadel.com/pages/mother_of_pearl.htm):
I am invincible, being extinct. He brandishes
his pair of ring-ridged horns, arcing back
like sabres. But mine are one metre fifty.
Here is an excerpt from a Derek Walcott poem, The Sea Is History (read the rest here: www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19972
Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?
Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,
in that grey vault. The sea. The sea
has locked them up. The sea is History.
Posted by Annmarie at 5/29/2009 12:39 PM 
Categories: Observation
Tags: Derek Walcott gossip Ruth Padel Oxford
Categories: Observation
Tags: Derek Walcott gossip Ruth Padel Oxford
They are hanging it out for us all to see, but Byron and the Shelleys were much more notorious. I can't wait to read the resulting verse from this nasty set of circumstances.
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