The Poet Laureate is the official bard of the royal family. It's a traditional post that goes back hundreds of years and holders of it include William Wordsworth, Lord Tennyson, John Masefield, John Betjeman and Ted Hughes. There's been quite a variety of topics for their works, from wandering as lonely as a cloud to the sea fever that sailors get.
And today we have another, namely the skills of that great footballer David Beckham. The current holder, Carol Ann (no not that one, her surname is Duffy) is a big fan of the beautiful game and morns the loss of one of England's finest from the coming World Cup - and rightly too.
But where are the great poets for the sailing competitions of today? Did any crafter of words become inspired by the 33rd America's Cup? I would like to say I leapt at the chance to fill this gap but poetry is not my forte
Is there, then, someone out there who will be able to record for literary posterity something that captured the essence of the contest?
In order to show how low the threshold of quality really is, here are some lines using the structure of a limerick drafted by yours truly:
There was a young man named Ernesto
Who loved to race with a gusto
On loosing AC-33
Said Larry with glee
It’s time he hung up his Mustos
Oh dear! Please put us all out of our misery!
