Who will be the next Oxford Professor of Poetry?

Who will replace Christopher Ricks as Oxford Professor of Poetry, said to be second in prestige to poet laureate?  Elections will be held on May 16, in spite of protests from those who are still reeling from the shock of Derek Walcott's withdrawal, due to a smear campaign.  Peter McDonald feels that the remaining choice, between Ruth Padel and Arvind Mehrotra is too limited for the vote.

James Fenton, "The hounding of a Nobel poet has shamed Oxford," London Evening Standard (May 15, 2009).

Alison Flood, "Oxford refuses calls to postpone poetry professor election," Guardian (May 13, 2009).

Mary Fitzgerald, "Should Derek Walcott have been Oxford poetry professor?" Guardian (May 12, 2009).

Olivia Cole, "Nobel winner quits Oxford poetry race over sex claims," London Evening Standard (May 12, 2009).

Alison Flood, "Derek Walcott joins race to become Oxford professor of poetry," Guardian (March 16, 2009).

Nicholas Wroe, "Bringing it all back home" (about Christopher Ricks) Guardian (January 29, 2005).

The Guardian's articles on the topic "Oxford Professor of Poetry" (2009).

Walcott's poem for Obama

"Forty Acres" was written by Derek Walcott to honor President-Elect Barack Obama, and was printed in the Times (November 5, 2008).  

Links:

Edward Byrne, "Barack Obama and Derek Walcott," One Poet's Notes Blog (November 9, 2008).

Catherine Elsworth, "Barack Obama still has time for a little poetry," Telegraph (November 7, 2008) where we learn that Obama may currently be reading Derek Walcott.

The next US President may also be a closet poet

Closet poet or not, my guess is that Barack Obama will do more to promote poetry than has been seen during the past eight years.  As we have already noted during the campaign, his command of rhetoric is impressive.  Steven Barrie Anthony at the Huffington Post reported on Obama's youthful  poetry (March 2007), reproducing copies of the poems.   In Rebecca Mead's "Obama, Poet" in The New Yorker (July 2, 2007), Harold Bloom was asked for an opinion of Obama's early efforts.  He compared "Pop" to Langston Hughes "who tended to imitate Carl Sandburg."  Bloom did not take the word "shink" in the body of the poem to be a typo, but rather a verb expressing very strong emotion.  Regarding "Underground," Bloom compared it to D.H. Lawrence's "Snake."

Other links

Ian McMillan, "The Lyrical Democrat," The Guardian (March 29, 2007).

Weaving autobiography and literary references

Derek Walcott was interviewed by James Campbell in the Guardian (October 4, 2008).