If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership, I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn’t, I’d ignore it.

Duffy frames occasional, state-linked commissions—such as poems expected for royal weddings—as contingent on genuine artistic impulse rather than obligation. The remark asserts a poet’s autonomy: public expectation does not automatically generate authentic work, and inspiration cannot be summoned on demand. By pairing “marriage” with “civil partnership,” she also signals an inclusive understanding of committed relationships, suggesting that if she were to write, it would be about the broader human meaning of union rather than pageantry. The closing “I’d ignore it” underscores a pragmatic ethic: better silence than a dutiful, hollow poem.