Meet America's New Poet Laureate

(NEWSER) - Britain's poet laureates have been criticized for writing about humdrum events on the royal calendar. If her first effort is any indication, the new laureate—the first woman—has no such intentions. Carol Ann Duffy is ticked off about the nation's scandal over lawmakers' expense accounts, and she lets everyone know it in her first poem, reports the Guardian. Politics "makes of your heart a fist," writes Duffy, who says of the poem only that it's about lost idealism. More»

(NEWSER) - Carol Ann Duffy and her 13-year-old daughter agreed it was time for a woman poet laureate in Britain, the Times of London reports. Widely expected to accept the post, Duffy, 53, agreed today to take over from incumbent Andrew Motion in the name of "great women poets ... like Alice Oswald," she said. “My only worry was what my daughter thought about it. She said, ‘Yes, Mummy. There has never been a woman poet laureate’.” More»

Kay Ryan, master of introverted verse, takes the national stage

(NEWSER) - Kay Ryan, a poet from Fairfax, Calif., with a reputation as an individualist, has been chosen as the nation's new poet laureate. The 62-year-old writer is known for her sly, concise verse that incorporates plays on words and uses intricate rhyme structures. Despite receiving many of the field's highest accolades, Ryan remains something of an outsider, writes the New York Times. More»

15th national bard known for his dark humor and irony

(NEWSER) - Charles Simic, a surrealist poet whose style gleams with dark imagery and ironic humor, will be named the United States' 15th poet laureate today. The 69-year-old, who replaces fellow New Hampshirite Donald Hall, has published more than 20 volumes of poetry as well as essay collections, translations and a memoir. More»

Scholars think his long-ago analysis was on the mark: Politico

(NEWSER) - The Vanity Fair excerpt of a Barack Obama biography includes a young Obama musing about TS Eliot. Politico collects reactions of the president as poetry critic, not pretentious boyfriend , and he gets pretty good grades:

• Former poet laureate Donald Hall: “If we talked about The Waste Land together when he was 22, we might disagree about some things. But insofar as he alludes to it here, there’s nothing that seems to me mistaken or untoward or indefensible.”