Word: betjeman
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Amis includes a respectable swatch of Jonathan Swift speculating on his coming demise and of T.S. Eliot musing on cats ("Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,/ There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity"). John Betjeman, England's reigning poet laureate, displays a light touch at vers de société; Robert Graves is captured in several nonmythic moods. A couple of songs by Nöel Coward read less jauntily than they sing. Auden the anthologist did not let Auden the splendid comic poet into his book. Amis generously corrects this blunder...
...Bowra was already a celebrated talent-spotter and host; among those who were just finishing their undergraduate careers in the mid-1920s, and who came and went within his circle, were Rex Warner, Cecil Day Lewis, Brian Howard, Cyril Connolly, Kenneth Clark, Henry Yorke (Henry Green), John Betjeman, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, John Sparrow, Isaiah Berlin, AJ. Ayer . . . There were giants in the earth in those days, but if in those days they were giants it was still within the context of their own circle; just a very talented group of young...
...nice Valentine's-card poem," said Poet Laurie Lee. Other critics less charitably called Betjeman's work "absolutely pathetic" and "nursery-rhyme gibberish." Member of Parliament Nicholas Fairbairn vowed to write a superior poem (he could not), and the Sunday People invited schoolchildren to submit their efforts with the appeal, "Can YOU do better than Sir John...
...Betjeman is one of Britain's bestselling poets. His light verse frequently reflects the loss of 19th century pastoral England. Last week he defended his 24-line Jubilee Hymn on grounds that it was meant to be sung, not recited. Indeed, it had been set to melody by Malcolm Williamson, Master of the Queen's Music, and drew loud applause when performed by the Trinity Boys' Choir at London's Royal Albert Hall...
England's 17th Poet Laureate was not without sympathizers. Said Poet Geoffrey Grigson: "Betjeman is not really to blame. The problem is having to get emotional about the monarchy at all." History seems to support Grigson's point. Most Laureates have found the muse reluctant to lower herself for mere royalty. At the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, C. Day Lewis, Betjeman's predecessor, had to make do with "You princely babe, you pretty dear/ For you we bring/ The birthday honors of the quickening year." He could have done worse. When the future Edward...