There was dancing in the streets of East Coker today as T.S. Eliot won the BBC's vote to find the Nation's favourite poet. Over 18000 votes were cast and the American (pictured here with William Carlos Williams) beat my selection, John Donne, into second place with Benjamin Zephaniah in third. You might say that two out of three ain't bad and feel reassured by the public's choice but the result of any poll can only reflect the taste of those who voted in it so presumably the demographic of the audience who took an interest in the vote was predominantly Modernist or Metaphysical while, among the 30 names that voters were given to choose from, all of the rap/slam/performance poetry vote had to coalesce around Ben Zeph.
Wilfred Owen will be pleased with his fourth place, Larkin was a solid 5th. Ever popular William Blake came 6th, Yeats 7th. Betjeman and Keats might be disappointed with their 8th and 9th places while Dylan Thomas rolled in 10th. Wordsworth and Hardy were unplaced and Coleridge is likely to be dope tested.
So, well done, the public. In some ways quite a surprising result but if 18000 take part and provide a result like that then all is not yet lost.
Wilfred Owen will be pleased with his fourth place, Larkin was a solid 5th. Ever popular William Blake came 6th, Yeats 7th. Betjeman and Keats might be disappointed with their 8th and 9th places while Dylan Thomas rolled in 10th. Wordsworth and Hardy were unplaced and Coleridge is likely to be dope tested.
So, well done, the public. In some ways quite a surprising result but if 18000 take part and provide a result like that then all is not yet lost.
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