Wendy Cope’s fans have campaigned for her appointment as Poet Laureate of England, but the post might be antithetical to her identity. Cope even claims she would like to see the post abolished. Even without her protest, her role as a deliberate renegade ill suits a public office. Cope carved her own poetic voice within contemporary British poetry while demonstrating her clear understanding of its parameters. Cope parodies many towering Modernist influences like Geoffrey Hill and Ted Hughes. Her translation of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” into a series of limericks chips at the foundations of the establishment by burlesquing one of its most central works. Among poets of her own generation, Cope’s use of formal technique stands out as antiquated or precious, while her cutting honesty deflates the pretensions of experimental and academic writing.

While other contemporary poets tackle social and political issues related to class, race, and gender identity in free verse or experimental works, Cope smuggles her ideas in deceptively simple, often archaic poetic forms. Her poems use the music associated with children’s verse or greeting cards to lampoon academic stuffiness and obscurity. She addresses many of the same social issues examined in works given more critical weight, but her commentary comes in the form of humor or subtle personal observation.