This essay argues that the various images of the laurel wreath and laureation in John Skelton’s The Laurel are marked by ambivalence. Far from a unified and full-throated celebration of his own achievements, the poem partakes of good-humored self-parody, serious self-mockery, and open disgust to undermine and question the political and aesthetic significance of the laurel, and what one must do to achieve it. The Laurel acknowledges and mocks the laureate’s impossible balancing act between a prophetic role as vates and a political role as orator regius ; this essay suggests that this tension is played out in the poem as Skelton considers the appealing immediacy of oral poetry and the compromises of written poetry.

中文翻译：

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树和花冠：在斯凯尔顿的《月桂树》中想要月桂树

本文认为，约翰·斯凯尔顿 (John Skelton) 的《桂冠》(The Laurel) 中的月桂花环和桂冠的各种形象都带有矛盾心理。这首诗远非对他自己的成就进行统一而热烈的庆祝，而是参与了幽默的自嘲、严肃的自嘲和公开的厌恶，以破坏和质疑桂冠的政治和美学意义，以及人们必须做什么做到这一点。桂冠承认并嘲笑获奖者在预言角色和政治演说家之间不可能平衡的行为；这篇文章表明，当斯凯尔顿考虑口头诗歌的吸引人的直接性和书面诗歌的妥协时，这种张力在诗中得到了体现。