The poet, Craig Raine release his new poem printed in this week’s issue of the LRB thereby unleashing anger among Twitter users.
The poem, which is called Gatwick, is a fantasy about a young official at passport control. “She is maybe 22 / like a snake in a zoo,” writes Raine “I want / to give her a kiss / But I can’t... I want to say I like your big bust. Which you try to disguise with a scarf.”
He wistfully concludes: “I can say these things, I say, because I’m a poet and getting old. / But of course, I can’t / and I won’t”.
After today’s backlash the 70-year-old poet and novelist might be feeling he shouldn’t and wishing he hadn’t.