England's First Female Poet Laureate

England has just chosen its first female poet laureate, a post that has been filled by men ever since it was created over 340 years ago. According to the New York Times, the new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, "is known for using a deceptively simple style to produce accessible, often mischievous poems dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life."

Here are some lines from “Valentine,” a poem about giving a lover not a heart or a rose, but an onion, whose “fierce kiss will stay on your lips,/possessive and faithful”:

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.