{"id":3023,"date":"2024-02-02T12:40:05","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T12:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=3023"},"modified":"2024-05-02T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:29:09","slug":"poertry-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=3023","title":{"rendered":"POETRY IN ENGLAND"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"336\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/les.png?resize=640%2C336&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/les.png?w=946&amp;ssl=1 946w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/les.png?resize=300%2C158&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/les.png?resize=768%2C403&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/les.png?resize=676%2C355&amp;ssl=1 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">wrote this many moons ago nothing changed<br>the description of Les Murray reading at the end is true<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>POETRY IN ENGLAND<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is something about poetry in England<br>That is awfully nay terribly Middle Class<br>Something not quite right in the hands of a worker<br>Sibilants dribbling like snot from the poor man\u2019s nose<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wiping its sleeve on the tasteful tablecloth of power<br>Always waiting to be found out or at least held up<br>As an exemplar of the erudite working class chap<br>Even that Larkin fellow wasn\u2019t a chav was he darling<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then the skirmishes with the Leftist proletarians<br>Or the Rightists in their towers quaffing champers<br>No never quite right, never accepted as kosher<br>Little piggy faces pressed to the literary crown jewels<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1992 I gate-crashed an Oxford University poetry bash<br>Crept along corridors I had no right to be in<br>After another day serving the arrogant little sods<br>And after much prevarication finally made it in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Les Murray, sitting like an antipodean Buddha<br>Laughing like a Boeotian at the Athenian Temple<br>Then he slowly let rip with poems from Dog Fox Field<br>Words circling the pews like a fox in a henhouse<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I walked up shook his hand said thank you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And skedaddled before they set the hounds loose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>wrote this many moons ago nothing changedthe description of Les Murray reading at the end is true POETRY IN ENGLAND There is something about poetry in EnglandThat is awfully nay terribly Middle ClassSomething not quite right in the hands of a workerSibilants dribbling like snot from the poor man\u2019s nose Wiping its sleeve on the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[33,79,116,46,59,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-poetry-magazines","category-poetry-reviews","category-poets","category-politics","category-populism"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-ML","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3023"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3066,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3023\/revisions\/3066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}