From IndyRef to Corbyn—what’s the point of political poetry?

We shouldn't dismiss the power of left-wing verse

by Harry Giles / August 24, 2015 / Leave a comment

Poet Harry Giles contributed to rallies and anthologies in the run-up to last year’s Scottish independence referendum

What can poets really add to an ongoing political debate? It was a question I asked myself repeatedly last year when, as a Scottish poet engaged with social movements, I was flattered with requests to contribute poems to pro-Independence publications. By the time of the vote I’d lost a sense of what the point of it all was. Was I supposed a battle bard, offering lyrical encouragement to the Yes troops? Or a jester, exposing rifts in the politics and laughing at difficult questions? Or a seer, trilling about hope and the utopian imagination? This spring Laphroaig asked me to pen an advertising jingle: on camera the producer asked, “Is it important to think about Scotland?” and I made a noise like an exhausted fart.

The truth is, the years when poets had any right to the claim of being unacknowledged legislators have largely passed—if they ever existed. While hiphop’s usurpation (or reclamation for the oral tradition) of political influence goes largely unacknowledged by poetry publishing, printed poetry itself has become culturally marginal and impossibly unprofitable. So what’s the point of new anthology Poets for Corbyn?

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Comments

Paul Greenland
August 24, 2015 at 12:09
I have written the verse below about the contest. As can be seen, I am not very keen on Corbyn's message. The Party's Over We had a 'do' to try to cheer up John, His wife had walked out after many years, He'd been a doormat and much put upon, And we were somewhat glad and shed no tears. We'd hoped he'd contemplate and seek advice, Perhaps some counselling to help reflect, But he held back and kept on being 'nice, He never thought to build his self-respect. But at our party he met up with Joan, A divorcée whose husbands could not cope, With selfish moods and tendency to moan. John heard her 'tale of woe'- it gave him hope, He thought he'd meet her needs-it gave him pleasure, Forgetting 'wed in haste, repent at leisure.' The Labour Party's sad from May's defeat, The people voted 'no' to Labour's plans, The Party's manifesto looked complete, And social media boasted 'Milifans', But voters did not seem to take to 'Ed', And felt it was not right to make him 'Prime', The shock of May the seventh reverberated, Wise counsel said 'reflect and take your time’, But Party rank and file were filled with grief At losing, that they could not see things right, They could not see the fault in their belief, And put the blame on others for their plight, They chose J.C - they thought he'd be their saviour, Why's Labour done the Tories such a favour? The moral of these tales is plain to see, That while a break-up's sad and causes pain, If lessons are not learned, one can foresee, That further grief will happen once again. To blame all those around us helps deflect Our faults to others- to our own we're blind. The need to change, and also to reflect Is banished - other scapegoats we will find. The stages of bereavement we all know, From shock to numbness, then to anger come. But choices made in anger seldom grow To happy outcomes, but to hate succumb. I am distressed - it makes me want to weep, "Who sows the wind, the whirlwind they shall reap".
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