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'V' by Tony Harrison

WARNING: Contains extensive use of profanity. 'V' is a poem by Tony Harrison written during the 1984-1985 miners strike. The poem aroused much controversy when broadcast in a film version on Channel 4. It describes the author's visit to his parents' grave in a Leeds cemetery "now littered with beer cans and vandalised by obscene graffiti". The cemetery in question is Holbeck cemetery in the Beeston area of Leeds which overlooks the Elland Road football ground, close to where Harrison grew up. The poem gives description of the graffiti on the grave, and pays particular notice to the use of the word united, exploring its ambiguous meaning, either as the name of a football club or a feeling of unity. Harrison was born in Leeds and educated at Leeds Grammar School and the University of Leeds, where he read Classics and took a diploma in Linguistics. The material of much of his poetry is provided by the memories of his working-class childhood, drawing extensively on his northern roots. He has written adaptations and translations for plays and film scripts, always in poetic form. These often involve northern actors speaking translations of classical Latin or Greek verse. His poems and translations show a powerful command of rhyme and an expert adaptation of colloquial speech. Harrison is noted for his outspoken views, particularly those on the Iraq War. In 1999 he also made a very public refusal over his candidacy for the post of Poet Laureate. In a scathing 94-line anti-royal poem, entitled Laureate Block, and dedicated to the Queen, Harrison set out in rhyming verse why he didn't want the job. Following the broadcast of 'V' after widespread press coverage, Gerald Howarth MP said that Harrison was "Probably another bolshie poet wishing to impose his frustrations on the rest of us". When told of this, Harrison retorted that Howarth was "Probably another idiot MP wishing to impose his intellectual limitations on the rest of us".