‘Patron Saint of Poetry’ reflects on his verses :

Speak from the heart

Ranali Fernando and Amalshan Gunerathne 

Roger McGough. Picture by Rukmal Gamage

As any reader of his poetry will know, McGough’s work uses every form of comedy imaginable, from wicked irreverence to feigned solemnity, from the profoundly wittiness to the ridiculously absurd. His compositions are humorous and utterly entertaining. They have the glorious ability to provoke a fit of chuckles and leave behind a delicious feeling of exhilaration. We were curious to know if this comic energy and lightheartedness was a reflection of his own personality. McGough responded: “As a poet you take on the voice of different characters… Not all of them are pleasant and not all those voices are really your own.”

He mentioned two of his poems where he adopts the voices of a violent, murderous teacher and a misogynistic rapist which some of his readers found disconcerting. He stated that channeling their point of view did not amount to justifying or condoning their actions.

McGough went on to say: “There always needs to be honesty in the voice of the poet but not necessarily truth.”

He is perhaps most famously known for his children’s poems like ‘First Day at School’, ‘Mafia Cats’ and ‘Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death’. However his sophisticated and nuanced use of humour make his work appealing to adults as well. In fact a significant majority of his poems such as ‘A Fine Romance’, ‘40-Love’ and ‘You and I’ actually deal with adult themes of death, raw sexuality and frustrated relationships. The more intimate and acquainted you get with his work, the more you begin to realize that the labels ‘children’s poet’ and ‘comic poet’ don’t entirely do him justice. Although his unique and characteristic wit pervades all his poetry, some of his poems deviate from the jovial and cheerful and stray into the realm of the nostalgic, sentimental and even poignant. He admitted he was ‘always wary of labels’.

Some of McGough’s books

Although critics and irritated academics like to classify him as a children’s poet, performance poet or funny poet, he prefers the easy convenience of just ‘poet’: “It’s the only label that matters.” He also mentioned that despite the overtly cheerful tone, some of his writing dealt with themes that were ‘dark’ and that pure humour in itself was insufficient to captivate an audience.

As a poet who has made several wickedly witty remarks about teachers and the education system in his compositions, we asked how he felt about the fact that his poems were being incorporated in school curriculums. He responded saying that the “academic approach to poetry is too off-putting and intellectual.” He reminisced about a physics teacher from his childhood who would have the whole class transfixed when he recited Yeats. He felt these moments were more interesting than the poetry taught in English classes and bemoaned that it is a pity that “poetry is not used enough for purely what it is.” He also believes that children have a refreshingly original perspective of the world, and that the rigid education imposed on them can limit this.

“At school if I ever gave a clever answer, they thought I was being rude. Poetry is a way of getting back at the teachers who were horrible to me.” McGough added laughingly.

When we enquired as to what he thought of modern poetry that does not use traditional rhyme and structure, he stated that he approved of the fact that “poets are looking for creative and inventive ways of expression.” He reiterated that “what matters most is finding an authentic voice.” Although he was not able to comment on the cyber culture of poems being published online on blogs and websites, he stated that “Poetry too is a sort of Facebook where you have the license to create a persona that is different to the real you.”

A frequent question posed by his readers is whether his poetry is as effortless to write as it is to read. To illustrate his answer, he whipped out his notebook and treated us to the privilege of hearing a few lines of a poem that he “scribbled in the middle of the night.” He said it was a work in progress that needed editing and went on to explain that although poetic inspiration occurred unexpectedly, the process of revision could take months. He added that as one gets older “you get more cautious about avoiding bad clichés.”

A little known fact about his past is that McGough began his career as a singer in a band named ‘The Scaffold.’ He has encountered famous names in the industry including the Beatles. When asked if he believed that all musicians were poets at heart, he responded saying “I wasn’t much of a musician… musicians have different sensibilities to which I couldn’t relate. I was just a sex symbol,” he added jokingly.

When we asked him if he was enjoying his visit to Sri Lanka he responded with an enthusiastic ‘Yes’ and mentioned that he is looking forward to visiting Kandy and Galle. Roger McGough will be making an appearance at the Galle Literary Festival, for anyone who is interested in meeting him in person.

Blurbs

“As a poet you take on the voices of different characters… there always needs to be honesty in the voice of the poet but not necessarily truth.”

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