{"id":44833,"date":"2021-03-06T11:16:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T16:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=44833"},"modified":"2021-03-10T12:02:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T17:02:18","slug":"will-oprah-winfrey-pick-up-where-he-left-off-heathcote-williams-on-the-british-monarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2021\/03\/will-oprah-winfrey-pick-up-where-he-left-off-heathcote-williams-on-the-british-monarchy.html","title":{"rendered":"Will Oprah Pick Up Where He Left Off?<\/em><\/font>
Heathcote Williams on the British Monarchy <\/b><\/font>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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‘Royal Babylon’ by Heathcote Williams<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A correspondent tells me that the poet Anthony Hecht said, “If you think you have something important to say, you shouldn\u2019t be a poet. But if you have a way with words, if you like tinkering with them, maybe you should.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I think it’s the other way around. Real poets have something important to say. Tinkerers tink.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proof? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoyal Babylon,\u201d a 60-page poem written in richly detailed, unrhymed stanzas of four lines each, damning the absurd idea of royalty and its privileges, most particularly the British monarchy, which Heathcote regarded as privately sordid and on a planetary scale criminal. It\u2019s the sort of poem likely to be remembered as a historical marker. The words have a ferocious theme. <\/strong> Tinkering wouldn\u2019t make the least bit of difference. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(And btw, there\u2019s no chance in hell that Oprah Winfrey will pick up where he left off.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postscript: March 10<\/em><\/a> — In all the press coverage<\/a> I have seen of the interview, it has been treated as a tale of personal tragedy, a terrible racist family squabble, for the British royals \u2014 but not one mention of the larger tragedy at the heart of \u201cRoyal Babylon,\u201d namely the immense damage caused by the monarchy’s greedy, rapacious treatment of peoples and nations the world over.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Skyscraper Publications, 2016<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
In the year of the Queen's Jubilee tourists peered as usual\nThrough the railings of Buckingham Palace,\nBut her fairy-tale was fading; the fairy queen's wings were being clipped\nBy the Sex Pistols putting monarchy in their sights. \n\n\"God save the queen,\" they sang, \"it's a fascist regime.\"\nAnd the song's hook-line became a new anthem \u2014\u2014\nDisturbing to clutches of flag-wavers lining the streets.\nAnd horrifying to Middle England and the Daily Mail.<\/a>\n<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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