Poetry Essay

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A few years ago a friend of mine married a Frenchwoman. Announcing her engagement at work, the lady in question was asked about her future husband's attainments. "He's a poet," came the reply. "Oh?" queried a young receptionist: "They still exist?"

In Britain, until recently, I'd have feared a worse response. "What's that?" is the sort of thing I have in mind. But not nowadays. Nowadays, poetry has a High Profile and its most prominent practitioners have Street Credibility.

You can't get away from it. Next week, for instance, the Poetry International hits the South Bank. There have been Poems for Bosnia and poems to save the planet. There are Poems on the …