USA Africa Dialogue Series - Statement By The New Oxford Professor Of Poetry

I fell under poetry's spell when I was fifteen and have remained under its influence ever since. At first I only wanted to read poetry, then eventually and inevitably wanted to try my hand at the stuff. Now, after so many years in the field, I feel I have plenty to say on the subject and a desire to talk and write about it. It's for that reason and at this time that I have put myself forward for the position of Professor of Poetry.

I believe the post has been well served by active poets. By poet-professors whose critical responses were shaped through both reading and writing, and who experienced the exasperations and ecstasies of putting poems together as well as the pleasures and pains of taking them apart. I would maintain the tradition of giving one formal lecture per term, the emphasis being on close reading of past and contemporary work, right up to the present day (and with accompanying texts, courtesy of my assistant PowerPoint!). The watchword will be craft. I'd also use the platform to discuss the situation of poetry and poets in the twenty-first century, to address the obstacles and opportunities brought about by changes in education, changes in reading habits, the internet, poetry's decreasing "market share", poetry's relationship with the civilian world and the (alleged) long, lingering death of the book. Following the example of the current post-holder, who knows, I might even break into song. Practicalities permitting, I'd also organise seminars or workshops for students who have ambitions of their own as poets, and encourage established poets to visit Oxford to read and talk about their work, so we might learn by example.

Most poets are critics at some level, and at some stage find themselves employed as teachers of poetry. Since 2011 I have been Professor of Poetry at the University of Sheffield, and before that held lectureships and professorships at the Universities of Manchester Metropolitan, Leeds, Falmouth and the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, plus further teaching positions in this country and the United States. In March of this year at the invitation of Trinity College I gave the Hillary Lecture at Oxford. But rather than my teaching CV, I offer as credentials my passion for poetry, my reputation as a communicator and an advocate for my chosen art form, my track record as a published poet, and my work as a poet for theatre, radio, television and as a translator of Middle English verse. I don't have a manifesto, except to say that if there is a more suitable applicant then please vote for that person, but if Oxford saw fit to appoint a self-schooled poet who views poetry from a hill above a Yorkshire village, then I would be greatly excited and deeply honoured to take on the challenge. A former Oxford Professor of Poetry, Robert Graves, once described poetry as a continual, lifelong apprenticeship, and to that end it would be an adventure and an education.

Simon Armitage.

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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

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