Carol Ann Duffy: a great public poet who deserves her public honour

As the current laureate is made a Dame, Kate Wilkinson pays tribute to work that has fearlessly engaged with the great questions of our age



Dorothy Wordswoth’s Christmas Birthday by Carol Ann Duffy

Twelve Days of Christmas by Carol Ann Duffy

Snow by Carol Ann Duffy

Of all the honours in this week’s New Year list, the Damehood bestowed on Carol Ann Duffy seems most timely. Not just because of her indefatigable record in responding to public events over the five years of her tenure as poet laureate, but because the Christmas holiday period has been so particularly productive for her.

Every year since 2008 she has published a Christmas poem and each one differs. In Mrs Scrooge (2008) and Wenceslas (2012), both published in the Guardian, she explores a time of material indulgence. The ascetic Mrs Scrooge and the Falstaffian King Wenceslas could not be more different in their celebrations of Christmas.

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