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Britain`s poet Laureate not afraid to speak out
Edinburgh, Aug 13: Britain`s official poet, Andrew Motion, earns 5,000 pounds ($8,000) and 500 bottles of sherry a year for the privilege of writing about the state of the nation.
Edinburgh, Aug 13: Britain's official poet, Andrew Motion, earns 5,000 pounds ($8,000) and 500 bottles of sherry a year for the privilege of writing about the state of the nation.
Since he took the 300-year-old post in 1999, he has dutifully written about the royal family but also penned poems on everything from train crashes to trade unions.
But the outspoken poet laureate, selected by the prime minister and approved by the queen, rocked the establishment in April by writing a poem condemning the Iraq war just as British troops fought alongside Americans to topple Saddam Hussein.
Discussing his controversial anti-war poem, "Regime Change", with Reuters at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Motion said the government never muzzles him.
"They may not like the line I take on certain things but they never tell me about it. There is no nagging, no bullying," said Motion, whose work is usually non-political.
Asked if his opposition had lessened, he said: "No. The opposite -- like thousands, if not millions of others...The whole thing was so hideous," he said.
"I still need to be persuaded that it was the right thing and was done in the right way," he added, echoing deep divisions in Britain over whether the war was justified as no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.
But for Motion, who describes himself as a reforming royalist, one subject is out of bounds: "That is poems which mock, deride or criticise the royal family. It would be a very difficult job to do if you weren't a royalist," he said.
But the outspoken poet laureate, selected by the prime minister and approved by the queen, rocked the establishment in April by writing a poem condemning the Iraq war just as British troops fought alongside Americans to topple Saddam Hussein.
Discussing his controversial anti-war poem, "Regime Change", with Reuters at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Motion said the government never muzzles him.
"They may not like the line I take on certain things but they never tell me about it. There is no nagging, no bullying," said Motion, whose work is usually non-political.
Asked if his opposition had lessened, he said: "No. The opposite -- like thousands, if not millions of others...The whole thing was so hideous," he said.
"I still need to be persuaded that it was the right thing and was done in the right way," he added, echoing deep divisions in Britain over whether the war was justified as no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.
But for Motion, who describes himself as a reforming royalist, one subject is out of bounds: "That is poems which mock, deride or criticise the royal family. It would be a very difficult job to do if you weren't a royalist," he said.
Asked if Queen Elizabeth was a fan of poetry, he said: "She reads a book of poetry a year. That is a hell of a lot more than most people read. So, as far as I am concerned, that makes her a reader of poetry."
When Motion was appointed poet laureate in 1999, he was greeted with a flood of vitriol by critics. The same happened to his predecessor Ted Hughes.
Unperturbed, he got on with the job, popularising poetry by visiting up to 200 schools a year. Previous incumbents have included John Dryden, William Wordsworth and Lord Tennyson.
Motion concluded: "I am glad I said yes. It allows me to do something about the things I believe in."
Bureau Report