The answer to that question has to be 'no.' But there is certainly a comic genius lurking somewhere beneath that brittle shell of idiocy. Or as Andrew put it himself: "My poems are the product of a side of my mind which is conscious, alert, educated and manipulative, and a side which is murky as a primaeval swamp." Well.... quite. Don't just take his word for it though - let the art speak for itself. And now is as good a time as ever to celebrate the ex-laureate with an anthology: he has after all recently been replaced by someone who can actually write. You'll agree that this is a damn shame after reading these gems. Sing, Calliope, and Erato, pluck thy lyre...
from An Elegy on the death of HM QUEEN ELIZABETH, THE QUEEN MOTHER.
Think of the buried body laid
inside its final earthly shade,
in darkness like a solid cloud
where weight and nothing coincide,
in silence which will never break
unless real angels really speak,
while we who wait our turn live on
re-calculating what has gone -
time-tested dignity and pride
and finished work personified.
from Picture This: A Celebration On The One Hundredth Birthday Of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
My dream of your birthday
is more like a wedding -
the August sky
confused with confetti,
no, not with confetti,
with photograph falls
where the steady gaze
of the century's eyes
captures your ages
unguarded or posed.
And finally, for William's 21st birthday Motion wrote what he quaintly calls a Rap Poem with two sides: 'side A' and "side B.' This is 'side A':
Better stand back
Here's an age attack,
But the second in line
Is dealing with it fine.
It's a threshold, a gateway,
A landmark birthday;
It's a turning of the page,
A coming of age.
It's a day to celebrate,
A destiny, a fate;
It's a taking to the wing,
A future thing.
Better stand back
Here's an age attack,
But the second in line
Is dealing with it fine.
It's a sign of what's to come,
A start, and then some;
It's a difference growing,
A younger sort of knowing.
It's a childhood gone,
A step towards the crown;
It's a trigger of change,
A stretching of the range.
Better stand back
Here's an age attack,
But the second in line
Is dealing with it fine.
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2 comments:
We really need to find a recording of him rapping that last one.
My favourite is:
the August sky
confused with confetti,
no, not with confetti...
The confetti was the only thing that made it like a wedding! It's not like a wedding at all! What are you talking about, Motion?
Ha ha Andrew Motion BRILLIANT. He must be the worldest biggest bore when he is on cocaine: just think of that chat, unrestrained on and on and on and on and on and on and on and am I confuing it with off
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