Read Higgin’s poem: "When Will My Time Come"
A Guardian critic has slammed Ireland’s new President, describing his poetry as “strikingly poor” and inferring it is “mad-dog-shite”.
Carol Rumens, a professor in creative writing at the University of Wales, Bangor and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, expressed wonder in her Guardian column on Tuesday at how Higgins is considered a poet.
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“Not only does Higgins not know when a poem is made, it's almost sacrilegious to mention him alongside Irish poets who actually do make decent poems,” she states.
Speaking about his poem ‘When will my time come’, Rumens admits she likes the opening line before adding “It's the rest of the poem that's the problem”.
She goes on to describe the poem as awkward and it’s metaphors as weak.
“The four lines about the journey of the Hero see the driver of this poetic vehicle overturned in a ditch, wheels spinning. They are meant to conjure the pathos and loneliness of aging. If only.”
Using a phrase used by Michael Longley to describe rubbish poetry, she concludes “When Will My Time Come" effortlessly slips into the category of “mad-dog-shite”.
Michael D Higgins was officially declared Ireland’s ninth president last Saturday with almost 57-percent of the votes. The 70-year-old is a former Galway University lecturer and published poet.
Here's a clip of Michael D Higgins reading some of his poetry at the Galway Races:
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.BARNEYKX | Dec 04, 2011, 04:29 PM EST
Don’t forget you’re Irish With your mortgage through the ceiling In negativity equity With banking gone all pear shaped And ditto property Your stocks and shares have tumbled Your politicians a disgrace Your wife is drinking porter And you’re in a desperate place Don’t forget you’re Irish And sing ‘twill do, ‘twill do. When your neighbour Buys a telly, of quality HD And his daughter becomes a doctor With a mighty fine degree When jealousy n’ begrudgery Overcome you totally too Don’t forget you’re Irish And sing ‘twill do, ‘twill do. When taxes they are climbing And your dole is cut in half And your best friend steals your Mrs And they run off for a laugh When you’ve lost your shirt On horses And your car’s* a zero-two Don’t forget you’re Irish And sing ‘twill do, ‘twill do. When your teanga’s undervalued And the kids say “Tá sé fear” And copious translations Continue much to jar When an Béarla usurps Gaeilge And cows only in English “moo” Don’t forget you’re Irish And sing ‘twill do, ‘twill do. Saint Peter’s on his day off And you’re at the pearly gates And St. Patrick checks the records For your eternal fate Don’t forget He’s Irish By a little more than half As he sneaks you* in the back door Just give a little laugh And sing ye both in harmony Without much more ado (sung) Don’t forget you’re Irish And sing ‘twill do, ‘twill do.
seanomelbourne | Nov 04, 2011, 07:05 PM EDT
Had a teary eye listening to MDH talking about his father reminded me of my father who was interned in the Curragh.I wonder if they knew each other.Dan reminds of another poet,Full many a flower is born to blush unseen/and waste it's sweetness on the desert air....(Grey)
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 04, 2011, 05:58 AM EDT
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date.... When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, and dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, Will be a tattered weed of small worth held... Yes…no more of this overrated rubbish!!
merefalow | Nov 03, 2011, 02:12 PM EDT
poetry is beautifull,not all that many people read it or quote it,i think anything that makes people think about it or read it,even when its bad is a good thing,mostly nobody has much to say about it,it never hits the news big time.shakespear,he,s probably put more people of poetry than any other,seriously overated boring ,except for mcbeth whom he probably didnt write,that was rabbie burns,,only joking you dick head before you start,it was roger bacon..
DanOLoingsigh | Nov 03, 2011, 05:54 AM EDT
@cillowen – get a grip, man (or woman?). Shakespeare, the most revered and performed playwright in the world…translated into every major language…still inspiring actors; directors etc. etc. you cannot be serious??
aloistmartin | Nov 03, 2011, 04:27 AM EDT
Will Dance and Tell Jokes for Guinness and Chips ! Every Good Bar needs a Clown ...Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, The music must always play, All the conventions conspire To make this fort assume The furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good. W,H, Auden
cillowen | Nov 02, 2011, 10:45 PM EDT
I liked listening to Higgins on the video - it captured much for me. This Brit flake should enlighten us on Shakespeare "all the world's a stage" inanity. If such be true then were does the audience sit to take it all in.
seanomelbourne | Nov 02, 2011, 05:47 PM EDT
Rumens is entitled to her ignorant opinion.
Towngate | Nov 02, 2011, 02:16 PM EDT
If she was any good ,she'd be a Oxford. The leading University of the World ( Official!) ... so where is she teaching? ... Wales! Enough said! ~~~ Having read her 'article' in which she hints at admired views of Northern (Irish) poets, perhaps she betrays a little bigotry from her work in Belfast! In the readers Comments on her article, both she and The Guardian get a good roasting!
dermotfastnet | Nov 02, 2011, 01:43 PM EDT
What a cheek has she ever read her own garbage
eiriamach | Nov 02, 2011, 01:36 PM EDT
Since when is poetry writing a must-have requirement for a state office holder? So he's no poet by Rumen's lights / Still he is well within his rights / To run for Pres in the land of Eire / Where neither poets nor statemen have ever been rare.
GeorgeDillon | Nov 02, 2011, 12:31 PM EDT
By the way Kelly, it`s not "it’s metaphors". Go call your high school English teacher and ask her to refresh your memory on the difference between its and it's. As to Higgins' poetry, I suspect every foreign dignitary and accrediting diplomat will be presented with a signed copy of the Complete Works of MDH. No soon have they left the Aras in Phoenix Park, the signed volume will wind up in the nearest trash can: Where it belongs.
cillowen | Nov 02, 2011, 12:14 PM EDT
Carol Rumens (searched the net and found this on her) CR. I am a disappointed romantic. Not very original – many poets are, I think. I have had many imaginary love-affairs, and behaved very foolishly in sometimes not realising how very imaginary they were – but they gave me poems and perhaps that was what I really wanted. This so-called love has been a great energy source for my poetry. LV. You claim, ‘I’ll/ author an honest tear.’ So you do. Your poetry is honest and what we are left with is a tear. You also claim you ‘open the veins of speech.’ One other, more recent poem states, ‘I’m a woman, English, not young.’ Desperado poetry always carries a burden, and this burden is another one for each poet, of course. Which burden is yours? What don’t you want to state in verse, so that the reader may infer and be sucked into it? CR. My burden is me! ---------------------------------------------- so says she - HER BURDEN IS HER - Another trying to ride on the back of new Prez Higgins. She and partner been to Russia brilliant a holes.
jackinny | Nov 02, 2011, 11:57 AM EDT
"decent poems" who is this women? She should google Seamus Heaney.How many Nobels has she won?I's just another example of british middle class lingering bigotry.
Pittsburghkid | Nov 02, 2011, 11:53 AM EDT
America must bare it's Cross Obama. Now Ireland has the Cross of Higgens to Bare. Prays in America brought America the Tea Party. I only pray that Ireland finds something to protect itself.
Portia777 | Nov 02, 2011, 11:03 AM EDT
Whos is She, exactly. I never heard of her.We in Eire know that people like her only become professors because they have no creative skills of their own. They simply vomit out other peoples ideas and knowledge.