Interview: Poet Laureate Andrew Motion

Traditionally, the Poet Laureate has been the official poet to the monarch. In recent years, this image has been updated to an ambassador for literature; tapping into the nation's mood through poetry. In 1999, Motion was not the most obvious choice for Poet Laureate as many had assumed Seamus Heaney would take on the role.

However, this was not the case and when Motion accepted the position he did so with an awareness that it would be for 10 years rather than for life.

During this decade Motion helped to establish English 21, working with the exam board QCA to advocate the importance of preserving poetry in the National Curriculum. He has also made many school visits where he has been able to appreciate first-hand how pupils are responding to poetry today.

He feels that while how poetry is taught across schools is diverse, the general teaching ethos has changed.

“Casting my mind back 10 years ago, there was an established centre and only one kind of poetry was given the credit of being the stuff that people in their right minds would look at,” he said.

“That has given way now, thank goodness. Now the kinds of poetry being written are as diverse as the culture in which it is being written. This seems perfectly right and sensible to me. We seem to be becoming a more tolerant society in respect to what a poem might be. The challenge now is to help young people develop an appropriate language through which to explore particular kinds of writing rather than becoming too insular. There needs to be a doorway into poetry for everyone.”

Coming into his position in 1999, means his tenure has spanned the turn of the century. He agrees it is always interesting to pontificate over what kind of poetry will be canonised: which writers will enjoy posterity beyond their own lifetime? What will be studied in 50 or 100 years time?

“There are so many poets and there will always be a pecking order at any point but it is difficult to predict whether these will have any longevity,” said Andrew “What is most important is a poet who brings pleasure and seems to say something about your world. Poets that tend to live longest are the ones that can achieve a balance between commenting on a particular situation while at the same time telling the whole truth about human nature.”

Motion wrote Regime Change in response to the Iraq War. It is a powerfully moving poem which does seem to strike that balance of capturing a specific social context while at the same time making an astute observation about humanity.

When asked about this poem, the first thing Andrew said was that he wishes that he never had to write it; it is not a poem about pleasure. Nevertheless as Poet Laureate it allowed him to take a different stance away from being consensual with the government of the day.

“This poem was a turning point for me as Poet Laureate,” he said.

“It allowed me to change the position which needed to be sufficiently updated, not yanked about but updated to make it more relevant.”

The role of the Poet Laureate traditionally involves writing poems to commemorate national events. Motion’s rap to mark Prince William turning 21 was met with mixed responses.

Poetry thrives on inspiration which is usually personal and many argue cannot be controlled or quantified. It must be difficult to be expected to create on demand.

“I have found certain difficulties in the obligations of my role. I am concerned about formal matters but there are no guts involved. Events in the Royal calendar are hard and my work sometimes just gets lost in the wider debate about the future of the monarchy. Nevertheless, I am passionate about things I professionally want to do, like writing about war and say, [last remaining Tommy and UK’s second oldest man] Harry Patch for example. I was fascinated to do it. You need to write about something you connect with.”

Motion’s new anthology, The Cinder Path is out next month. He has not published a collection of poems since 2003. He admits he stopped writing in the midst of his tenure for various reasons, one being the writing of his childhood memoirs.

He said: “Something came back a couple of years ago and I started writing again. I am still the same poet but in a different key. I’m interested to see how people react to this. It’s about the same kind of issues: love, family and there are lots of poems about my father who died three years ago. Some of the poems are written before his death and some of them after; they take up around a third of the book.

“The anthology is also different in terms of the music. I feel that these poems have a more relaxed sense of lyricism than my previous work, maybe it has come with age.”

One of Motion’s favourite poets is Philip Larkin. In 1993 he published a detailed and fascinating biography on his life. Upon the death of John Betjeman in 1984, Larkin refused the post of Poet Laureate. Motion has chosen a different path and 10 years on, he feels he made the right decision.

“That’s not to say that I am not looking forward to having my life back,” he said.

“Because I knew I was only holding the post for 10 years, I knew I could go about it in a busy way and give it some blast and that’s what I’ve tried to do. I thought when I leave the post this year might mean less responsibility but I can’t see that is going to be the case. I will clearly have less of the more obvious responsibilities I have at the moment.

“Part of me will miss it; it’s been quite a ride one way or another. Another part of me will be glad to give it up and go on and do the next thing. But I’m not going to go on in a way that breaks the continuity with the things that I have got interested in the past 10 years. It has set my life on a track in a way I am grateful for.”

Andrew Motion is speaking at Croydon Clocktwower, Katherine Street, Croydon on March 16. 7.30pm. 020 8253 1030.

The Cinder Path is published by Faber & Faber on April 16.