Carol Ann Duffy Introduces The Map and the Clock

With Welsh poet Gillian Clarke, the United Kingdom's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has been busily compiling a new British and Irish poetry anthology called The Map and the Clock: A Laureate’s Choice of the Poetry of Britain and Ireland. Comprised of poems that strive to redefine Britain's national character, or, perhaps update it, the collection is a poetry compendium with large-as-life scope. In Duffy's own words, via the Guardian:

On a seventh-century night in Northumbria, the Venerable Bede tells us, a lay brother and cattle herder named Caedmon had an extraordinary experience. Caedmon was not a literate man, and when social gatherings turned to song he would make his excuses and leave. On this night, when the harp came to him, he rose to tend the cattle and fell asleep in the stable. He dreamed that a man appeared. “Caedmon,” said the man, “Sing me a song.” But Caedmon did not know what he could possibly sing. “Sing about the creation of all things,” said the man. And Caedmon did, singing lines that he had never heard before; lines of such beauty, says Bede, that they moved the hearts of many to heaven.

“Nu scylun hergan,” Caedmon began. “Now we must praise … ” And poets have praised ever since.

Caedmon’s Hymn
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Now we must praise to the skies, the Keeper of the
heavenly kingdom,
The might of the Measurer, all he has in mind,
The work of the Father of Glory, of all manner of marvel,

Our eternal Master, the main mover.
It was he who first summoned up, on our behalf,
Heaven as a roof, the holy Maker.

Then this middle-earth, the Watcher over humankind,
Our eternal Master, would later assign
The precinct of men, the Lord Almighty.
Caedmon translated by Paul Muldoon

In capturing “Caedmon’s Hymn”, Bede recorded the first poem to be written down on these islands. It is also the first poem in our new anthology, and its call to song – urging its author and reader to connect to the created world – is a call that echoes throughout the collection.

Continue in the Guardian.