“The two most important positions in the British poetry establishment are about to be filled – and it looks likely, for the first time ever, that both incumbents will be women. An announcement is expected in the next few weeks on the poet laureate to succeed Andrew Motion when he steps down in May. That same month, an election will be held to find a replacement for Christopher Ricks as the Oxford professor of poetry – a position held, variously, by Matthew Arnold, WH Auden and Seamus Heaney.”