A far cry from dancing daffodils or the capers of an owl and a pussy cat, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy is set to bring literature up to date with an ode to a gas meter.
The Glasgow-born poet is writing her most unusual piece yet to mark the passing of traditional gas and electricity meters, the coming of smart meters and the end of estimated bills.
Since her appointment as Poet Laureate by the Queen in May 2009, she has written verse for significant national occasions.
She wrote Last Post which marked the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, the last two British soldiers to fight in Word War I, and Achilles (for David Beckham) about the Achilles tendon injury that left the England footballer out of the 2010 World Cup.
She then wrote Rings for the 2011 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The replacement of old gas and electricity meters with smart meters in every British home and small business by 2020 is the latest significant moment recorded by the Poet Laureate.
Duffy, who has been working on the as yet untitled poem for the last few months, will publish it later this summer.
"Gas and electricity meters have been a fixture under stairs and in cupboards for more than a hundred years so it felt fitting to preserve their place in household history with a poem.
"It is definitely one of my most unusual projects, but hopefully I'm able to produce a piece that captures the last whirs of these spinning machines before they make way for their digital counterparts," she said.
In November last year, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed A Requiem For Meters, a three-minute piece of music played entirely on instruments made from old gas and electricity meters.
It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and released for free on Spotify to raise awareness of the coming of smart meters.
Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Smart Energy GB, said: "There is a great British tradition of marking national moments with poetry.
"Carol Ann Duffy, as our national Poet Laureate, is the perfect person to express the significance of the demise of traditional meters and the transformation that will come about as a result of smart meters."
More than three million smart meters have already been installed across Britain.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here