He hasn't been the most popular of Laureates, nor the most scintillating. He has been, at times, both too much and too little in the public eye. Some people I've met have had nothing but good things to say about the man and his work. Indeed, I've met the man myself - but only for thirty seconds, before he dashed off, wine glass still in hand, to another gathering of poets somewhere across London. He seemed rather unengaged in the poetry event I was attending, and who can blame him? Once you've been to one, you've been to them all.
The big question is, how many poets will state in later years to have been 'inspired' by Andrew Motion's term as Laureate?
Well, stranger things have happened at sea.
* POETRY SOCIETY EVENT *
Monday 28th April 2009, 7.45pm.
The Poetry Society marks the end of Andrew Motion's decade as Poet Laureate. On this historic occasion, Andrew will also be reading from his new collection The Cinder Path.
VENUE: Purcell Room, 7.45pm, Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre. £9 for Poetry Society Members, £10 for others. Tickets from www.southbankcentre.co.uk or 0871 663 2500.
4 comments:
His work bores me absolutely witless. I'm not saying he's a bad poet--he's certainly not--but his references and general orientation towards life-through-language just don't give me what I go to poetry for. Every poem I've ever read by him reads as though it had already been set for GCSE English.
Thanks, Bo. Go on, tell it like it is!
Lol. Jx
I second what Bo says, as personal taste.
But what I REALLY want to know is why the DCMS have taken so long to announce the new laureate. Maybe they've had trouble finding someone willing to take up the post? Or maybe they started by trying to work out what poetry is and got stuck?
Andy Burnham: Oi, Babs, this one doesn't rhyme.
Barbara Follett: Hell, look at this one! It's got pictures and stuff.
AB: Are you sure that's a poem?
BF: Well it was in the Poetry Section in the library.
AB & BF (scratching their heads): Hmmmm...
GT
JH: You're a very bad man, George.
GT: I agree, Jane. You, on the other hand, are the smartest, wittiest, most attractive and infinitely superior woman I have ever known ... apart from my own dear mama, of course.
JH: Alright then. You can have my last Rolo.
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