Cuts Like a Knife

The BBC reported yesterday that the GCSE English anthology (that stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education) removed a poem by Carol Ann Duffy about a knife-wielding misanthrope because of fears over teenage knife crime.

Says the BBC: "The poem begins with the line: "Today I am going to kill something. Anything."

It describes the thoughts of a disturbed, isolated individual who feels underappreciated and undervalued and who kills a fly then a goldfish. The poem concludes with this angry loner going outside with a bread knife."

"This poem is pro-education and anti-violence. It is not glorifying violence in any way," said Peter Strauss, Duffy's agent.

Said Crocodile Dundee, realizing all of this fuss was over a bread knife poem, "That's not a knife poem. This is a knife poem!"

UPDATE: In response to her banishment, Carol Ann Duffy wrote a poem for The Guardian.