Britain in 2020 is a peculiar place. We are having an argument over an ancient piece of poetry in a patriotic song, “Rule, Britannia.” Written in 1740, the words include the idea that Britons “never never never shall be slaves,” but the verse was written at the peak of the slave trade, and there is an enormous row – inflamed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a distraction from his multiple policy failures – over whether to sing “Rule, Britannia” in a concert in the Royal Albert Hall.
Rather than wade into the politics of distraction, I am much more interested that the “Rule, Britannia” row comes as the study of poetry in England – the home of so many great poets – is being hit by a wrong-headed decision of the education authority known as “Ofqual,” the Office of Qualifications and Examination Regulation. Ofqual decided that next year, school children will no longer have to study poetry in order to pass exams in English literature. This is daft. Poetry is not for everyone. It can be difficult and off-putting. But so can algebra, geometry and the use of the subjunctive when speaking Spanish. And poetry is also extremely popular with children. According to the Children’s Literacy Trust reading and even writing poetry engaged half the children they surveyed. Poetry is often recited on TikTok and shared on other social media. Children love to play with words and enjoy making patterns of rhythm and rhyme.
As a teenager I was encouraged to recite poetry by heart. One favourite was “On His Blindness” in which the 17th century English poet John Milton laments his loss of eyesight, trying to understand why his one great gift – writing – is “lodged with me useless”.
The inventive poetic arrangement of language will always move the spirit, inspire and touch the soul
Later I was introduced to the works of the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi who followed Arabic models in writing, as did Omar Khayaam in his Rubaiyat, using a literary form which another poet, Sa'ib, says "thrusts the fingernail into the heart." He's right. It does.
This decision by a few Ofqual bureaucrats is supposed to be temporary, but it is also revealing of a mindset of educational defeatism – the belief that children will choose what they think is easy over something supposedly difficult. But how can anyone know whether poetry is difficult unless they study it first? Why – except for administrative convenience – not insist all children study a literary form found in all cultures and all ages?
From Japanese haiku to Persian and Arab verse to Goethe, Homer, Virgil and Wordsworth, to beautiful poems celebrating the world’s great religions, poetry will survive this bureaucratic blunder.
But what is at risk is that some children may miss out on enjoying the complexity of meaning in verse and the music of sounds and rhythm fitting together – a complexity which, you may conclude, underpins the row about the precise meaning of “Rule, Britannia”.
What is clear is that from the nonsense poetry of Edward Lear to the sharp lyrics of hip hop or country ballads, Shakespeare’s sonnets or patriotic but controversial songs, the inventive poetic arrangement of language will always move the spirit, inspire and touch the soul. And teachers know how to teach it.
My own English teacher very cunningly persuaded my (somewhat reluctant) class of 13-year-olds that compulsory lessons on poetry were worth our time by opening a lesson playing songs by Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.
This was followed by the lyrics of some less distinguished pop songs. We discussed what the words meant and then were inspired to read other kinds of poetry. I thought of that inspiring teacher years later, in 2016 when the Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to Bob Dylan for, as the Nobel committee put it, "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
Rolling Stone magazine voted Dylan the greatest song writer of all time. Accolades from a music magazine to the Nobel committee suggest something worthwhile is being created by poetry which spans high art and popular culture.
And so perhaps the decision to make the study of poetry in England voluntary rather than compulsory may not be such a big deal. If you have ever instructed a teenager that something is not for them, you can be sure they will see it as a clear incitement to do the opposite, and jump into poetry.
The bizarre row over “Rule, Britannia” comes as Mr Johnson’s government faces one of the worst economic slowdowns in any rich country, one of the worst records on coronavirus in Europe, and amid concerns that his plans for Brexit will be implemented incompetently. Even if “Rule, Britannia” is as out of date as the British Empire sending gunboats around the world, poetry, like the human spirit, will win in the end. Bureaucrats and desperate political leaders can’t kill this common human need.
As that great American poet Maya Angelou put it, “You may tread me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise.”
Gavin Esler is a journalist, author and presenter
How England have scored their set-piece goals in Russia
Three Penalties
v Panama, Group Stage (Harry Kane)
v Panama, Group Stage (Kane)
v Colombia, Last 16 (Kane)
Four Corners
v Tunisia, Group Stage (Kane, via John Stones header, from Ashley Young corner)
v Tunisia, Group Stage (Kane, via Harry Maguire header, from Kieran Trippier corner)
v Panama, Group Stage (Stones, header, from Trippier corner)
v Sweden, Quarter-Final (Maguire, header, from Young corner)
One Free-Kick
v Panama, Group Stage (Stones, via Jordan Henderson, Kane header, and Raheem Sterling, from Tripper free-kick)
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champioons League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
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The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed PDK
Power: 630bhp
Torque: 820Nm
Price: Dh683,200
On sale: now
BRIEF SCORES:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Results:
Men's wheelchair 800m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 1.44.79; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 1.45.88; 3. Isaac Towers (GBR) 1.46.46.
List of alleged parties
May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members
May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party
Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson
Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party
Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters
Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Five hymns the crowds can join in
Papal Mass will begin at 10.30am at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on Tuesday
Some 17 hymns will be sung by a 120-strong UAE choir
Five hymns will be rehearsed with crowds on Tuesday morning before the Pope arrives at stadium
‘Christ be our Light’ as the entrance song
‘All that I am’ for the offertory or during the symbolic offering of gifts at the altar
‘Make me a Channel of your Peace’ and ‘Soul of my Saviour’ for the communion
‘Tell out my Soul’ as the final hymn after the blessings from the Pope
The choir will also sing the hymn ‘Legions of Heaven’ in Arabic as ‘Assakiroo Sama’
There are 15 Arabic speakers from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in the choir that comprises residents from the Philippines, India, France, Italy, America, Netherlands, Armenia and Indonesia
The choir will be accompanied by a brass ensemble and an organ
They will practice for the first time at the stadium on the eve of the public mass on Monday evening
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Revival
Eminem
Interscope
Company%20Profile
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
'The Ice Road'
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Stars: Liam Neeson, Amber Midthunder, Laurence Fishburne
2/5
Why does a queen bee feast only on royal jelly?
Some facts about bees:
The queen bee eats only royal jelly, an extraordinary food created by worker bees so she lives much longer
The life cycle of a worker bee is from 40-60 days
A queen bee lives for 3-5 years
This allows her to lay millions of eggs and allows the continuity of the bee colony
About 20,000 honey bees and one queen populate each hive
Honey is packed with vital vitamins, minerals, enzymes, water and anti-oxidants.
Apart from honey, five other products are royal jelly, the special food bees feed their queen
Pollen is their protein source, a super food that is nutritious, rich in amino acids
Beewax is used to construct the combs. Due to its anti-fungal, anti-bacterial elements, it is used in skin treatments
Propolis, a resin-like material produced by bees is used to make hives. It has natural antibiotic qualities so works to sterilize hive, protects from disease, keeps their home free from germs. Also used to treat sores, infection, warts
Bee venom is used by bees to protect themselves. Has anti-inflammatory properties, sometimes used to relieve conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, nerve and muscle pain
Honey, royal jelly, pollen have health enhancing qualities
The other three products are used for therapeutic purposes
Is beekeeping dangerous?
As long as you deal with bees gently, you will be safe, says Mohammed Al Najeh, who has worked with bees since he was a boy.
“The biggest mistake people make is they panic when they see a bee. They are small but smart creatures. If you move your hand quickly to hit the bees, this is an aggressive action and bees will defend themselves. They can sense the adrenalin in our body. But if we are calm, they are move away.”
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SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
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