American politics and poetry

In the light of all the excitement about Barack Obama being seen in public with a copy of Derek Walcott's Collected Poems under his arm, I was reminded of seeing an anthology of Langston Hughes that John Kerry edited in the run-up to the 2004 election.

It's hard to imagine such things happening here in the UK: Gordon Brown protesting "Arctic Monkeys? No, no: I said I love Moniza Alvi" or David Cameron cycling to work with a copy of Paradise Lost being driven in a car behind him. Although, to be fair, I do remember a thoughtful article by David Blunkett about Philip Larkin in Magma a little while ago. Perhaps the revolution will be poeticised, after all...