After 341 Years, a Woman Is British Poet Laureate

Phil Noble/Reuters
Carol Ann Duffy in the John Rylands Library in Manchester on Friday.

By SARAH LYALL writing in The New Yrk Times, May 1, 2009

LONDON — Carol Ann Duffy was named poet laureate of Britain on Friday, the first time in its 341-year history that the post — held by such poets as Dryden, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Ted Hughes — has gone to a woman.
Ms. Duffy, 53, is known for writing accessible, often witty poems on a wide range of topics, many of them to do with the minutiae of everyday life. She succeeds Andrew Motion, who has just completed his 10-year term.
The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, called Ms. Duffy “a towering figure in English literature today and a superb poet.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, “she is a truly brilliant modern poet who has stretched our imaginations by putting the whole range of human experiences into lines that capture the emotions perfectly.”

Poet laureates originally were meant to serve as courtiers, writing odes to significant royal occasions like birthdays and coronations. The post has evolved over time, and Mr. Motion has been credited with bringing a new zest to it, using it to bring poetry into schools and to start the Poetry Archive, a compendium of poets reading their work aloud.
Mr. Motion has complained that he found writing royal poems wearisome. A decade ago, when he got the laureateship, Ms. Duffy was quoted as saying, “I will not write a poem for Edward and Sophie. No self-respecting poet should have to” — a reference to the marriage of Prince Edward, the Queen’s youngest son, and Sophie Rhys-Jones, which Mr. Motion had been obliged to commemorate in poetry.
Ms. Duffy said that she hoped “to contribute to people’s understanding of what poetry can do, and where it can be found.”

And The Guardian report, (interview with the new laureate)