This anthology, which sets out to prove that poetry and politics can mix, and was a rather nice idea anyway, now serves as a fitting tribute to Michael Foot, who died last week at the age of 96, and whose passion for politics was matched only by his passion for poetry and prose. The Foots and the Poets is published by, Brian Lake and Janet Nassau, who run Jarndyce antiquarian booksellers in Great Russell Street in the shadow of the British Museum. The idea was Michael’s and the book is based on interviews with Michael, a close friend of theirs for many years, by Derek Summers, a poet, teacher, and Brian’s brother-in-law.
It’s a fascinating collection of the poetry and prose which inspired three generations of a remarkable family: Isaac Foot, Liberal MP for Bodmin, Minister for Mines and vice-president of the Methodist Conference; his son Michael, leader of the Labour Party; and grandson Paul, a member of the SWP and editor of Socialist Worker.
Isaac was a great admirer of Oliver Cromwell and his selections, from a commonplace book he kept, include pieces by John Milton, who served as Cromwell’s Latin Secretary, including extracts from Paradise Lost, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont, the lines beginning “Cromwell, our chief of men” and Areopagitica.
Michael includes selections from Jonathan Swift, including his famous Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents or Country; William Hazlitt; William Wordsworth; John Keats; Lord Byron; Adrian Mitchell; Tony Harrison; UA Fanthorpe and Derek Walcott.
Paul’s include extracts from Queen Mab and The Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley as well as Paul’s trhilling – and pointed –explication of the work of a man he considered the revolutionary poet par excellence.
