Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry awarded to Fleur Adcock
Richard Lea
Monday April 24, 2006
Fleur Adcock has been awarded the 2006 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, becoming only the seventh female poet to receive the award in 73 years.
The award was made for her collected works, Poems, 1960-2000. A statement from Buckingham Palace cited the "widespread critical acclaim" that the volume received.
Adcock, 72, was born in New Zealand, but spent much of her childhood in England, and moved here permanently in 1963. She has published 10 collections of poetry, as well as several translations of Romanian and medieval Latin poems, and has edited a number of anthologies. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984, and was awarded an OBE in 1996.
Adcock joins an illustrious list of poets honoured by the Gold Medal, first awarded in 1933, including WH Auden, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes and Les Murray. The medal is given for a book of verse published by someone from the UK or the Commonwealth. Recommendations for the award are made by a panel chaired by the poet laureate, Andrew Motion.
The Queen will present the medal at Buckingham Palace on June 7 2006.
I have greatly enjoyed Fleur Adcock's book of translations of medieval Latin poetry, The Virgin and the Nightingale (Bloodaxe Books 1983), and rate it alongside the Medieval Latin Lyrics of Helen Waddell. Here is a sample from the section on birds, suitable for the springtime we are enjoying today:
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Sunt saecla praeclarissima, sunt prata vernantissima, formosa gaudent omnia, sunt grata nostri moenia. Laetentur ergo somata et rideant praecordia, amor petens finitima sint cuncta vitulantia. |
We live in splendid times: the fields are rich and blossoming with spring; our city is a pleasant place; there's joy in every living thing. So let our bodies take their ease, and hearts enjoy this happy state; with 'love thy neighbour' as the theme all creatures ought to celebrate. |
And here's another extract that speaks to me as one pushing threescore years and ten!
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Cum Fortuna voluit me vivere beatum, forma, bonis moribus, fecit bene gratum et in altis sedibus sedere laureatum. Modo flos preteriit mee iuventutis, in se trahit omnia tempus senectutis; inde sum in gratia novissime salutis. |
Fortune used to smile on me: I didn't have to try; good looks and charming manners were mine in full supply; she crowned my head with laurels, and set me up on high. But now my youth has faded; I've seen its petals fall; time has brought old age to me, the latest phase of all; now my final state of health has me in its thrall. |
Revisiting these lovely medieval poems makes me ask again why we don't introduce them to pupils. Their language is simple and direct, and the subject matter is such as they will readily appreciate. Go on, take the plunge! You may need to change the spelling back to the familiar classical forms (change some 'e's to 'ae' for instance), and you may want to consider before introducing poems that discuss whether or not the poet should press his attentions on a very young girl (don't worry, he comes down firmly on the side of chastity):
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Virgo cum virginibus horreo corruptas, et cum meretricibus simul odi nuptas; nam in istis talibus turpis est voluptas. |
Defloration is a sin - such a horrid thought! Prostitution's just as bad: sex should not be bought. As a virgin I detest sordid kinds of sport. |
On second thoughts, this may be just what the teenagers should be hearing ...
Three cheers for Fleur, anyway. Hip hip ...
