Yes, that's apparently the case in the UK, but in the US the change in terminology from
"consultant in poetry" to "poet laureate" can be largely attributed to the dominant cultural
anglophilia in Washington DC. Laura Bush may have some input on the choice from 2000-
2008, but Dana Gioia and previous poet laureates put together lists of 15 poets from
which the Librarian of Congress, James Billington, made the final choice. I'd say that
George Bush's "sacred bard" was Dana Gioia.
Kay Ryan, whose tour of duty ends May 7 with a reading at the Library of Congress, was
publicly introduced by Gioia at Laura Bush's National Book Festival. I listened to her read
for a while without interest until it was time to witness a film by the major Portuguese
director Manoel de Oliveira. None of the readings she organized at the LC intrigued me in
the least. Hard to guess who might be the next poet laureate, though I can imagine
Elizabeth Alexander's name being one of the 15 listed for the 2009-2010 season.
Barry Alpert
On Fri, 1 May 2009 10:51:46 -0500, Jon Corelis<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I think what's really interesting about the idea of a poet laureate is
>that it's the last, faint echo of a very ancient, and once crucially
>important, Indo-European institution, the sacred bard, on whom in a
>very real sense a leader's authority depended on.
>
>--
>===============================================
>
> Jon Corelis http://jcorelis.googlepages.com/joncorelis
>
>===============================================
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