What Is A Poet?

What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music. Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

A Poet is someone who is startled out of his trance by his dreams. Irving Layton, The Whold Bloody Bird

Really there is no one more confident than a bad poet. Martial, Epigrams

So, is Ruth Padel a bad poet? Is she fit to survive as a poet? She has an illustrious ancestry, as the great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, the great-great-great granddaughter of the philosopher Erasmus Darwin. Has she brought shame upon herself and upon them, by association? Obviously her poetic oeuvre must have merit, otherwise she would not have been elected to the prestigious Oxford professorship as Britain's first female poet laureate.

She is most certainly culpable of exercising questionable judgement in directing attention toward a hoary old allegation brought to bear against the reputation of her primary rival for the post, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott. Who, in disgust at the revelation simply removed himself from a tarnished process. Someone must have engineered and sponsored the synchronized effort to discredit Mr. Walcott.

And although Ms. Padel admits to having 'tipped off' journalists to the allegation of ill-conduct on the part of Mr. Walcott, she claims to have had no part in the greater scheme to discredit, embarrass and scupper his candidacy for the plummy post she would prefer be granted to her rather than him. In Mr. Walcott's own words, the "...low and degrading attempt at character assassination".

"I genuinely believe that I did nothing intentional that led to Derek Walcott's withdrawal from the election. I wish he had not pulled out", said Ms. Padel with obviously true regret. There is no one who would not regret becoming a pivotal figure in a miserable little scandal such as this, particularly when the finger of guilt points squarely at oneself.

There are times when it is better to withdraw. As Mr. Walcott did. As Ms. Padel herself now did, relinquishing the cherished position, stung by the notoriety that has now come her way. Her 'reason' for behaving as she did sounds spurious at best, asserting that she "naively - and with hindsight unwisely", reacted to a student's expressed concern with respect to Mr. Walcott's suitability for the post.

She did not hesitate to cast aspersions of blame on the two journalists to whom she divulged the information of Mr. Walcott's past allegations of misconduct whom she "believed to be covering the whole election responsibly". It was, then, they who were not behaving responsibly, by writing up the information she directed them toward, not she who led them to their discovery.

Poetry is an act of peace. peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread. Pablo Neruda, Memoirs

Perhaps it's time for Ruth Padel to write an anguished poem of responsibility.