...Yes, but does anyone want the job?

Last month, I mentioned the campaign in Britain to make the next Poet Laureate a woman (up till now they've all been men). However, according to the "Book Bench," (a blog at the "New Yorker"), the campaign has run into an itty-bitty problem: there isn't a woman who wants the job. Somehow, writing official poems for royal occasions doesn't sound too thrilling to a twenty-first century poet even if the pay is five thousand pounds plus the traditional "butt of sack" (more prosaically, a vat of port). I understand their reluctance -- such a job seems to deserve not only more pounds but most definitely more sack.

The "Book Bench" item can be found here.