Laura Purdie Salas

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You are here: Home / Poems for Teachers / David Beckham: Soccer Celebrity, Poetic Hero

David Beckham: Soccer Celebrity, Poetic Hero

March 22, 2010 By Laura

 

I see that Britain’s poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has written a poetic tribute to David Beckham, the soccer superstar who tore his Achilles tendon (ouch!) in a game last week. She said she was moved by images of Beckham on the sidelines, in tears after his injury. In this heroic ode, she touches on lots of details specifically about Beckham’s life, which is cool. It’s not just an ode to any soccer celebrity. 

Achilles

Myth’s river – where his mother
dipped him, fished him, a
slippery golden boy flowed on,
his name on its lips.

Without him, it was prophesied,
they would not take Troy.

Women hid him, concealed him
in girls’ sarongs; days of
sweetmeats, spices, silver songs …

But when Odysseus came, with an
athlete’s build, a sword and a shield,
he followed him to the battlefield,
the crowd’s roar,

And it was sport, not war,
his charmed foot on the ball …

But then his heel, his heel, his heel …

–Carol Ann Duffy, all rights reserved

You can read more about this poem here. 

I love the fact that Beckham injured himself on March 14, and by March 17, Duffy had immortalized it! OK, wouldn’t it be fun to have a poet who penned odes about all celebrity mishaps? Forget E or wherever you get your entertainment news. Just read about Lindsay Lohan’s latest arrest or a certain Oscar winner’s crumbling marriage in poems. At least our scandal-hungry population would get some poetry in with our sensationalism. 

What do you think? What recent celebrity event would YOU like to see poetic tribute to?

Tagged With: Carol Ann Duffy, occasional poems, odes, poems

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