Poet in Motion

History repeats itself, arriving first as fairy tale and then as farce. As Britain works itself into a lather over the forthcoming royal nuptials, one man in the sceptred isle finds himself hard at work in the lonely task of marking his words. Andrew Motion, the official poet laureate of the United Kingdom, required to commemorate events of public consequence does the death of a royal Corgi qualify? with flights of the inspirational, will now have to summon forth the necessary verbal fire power to celebrate the somewhat jaded union of a somewhat faded couple.

This has occasioned a nation-wide wave of sympathy for Motion, lashed inevitably with large helpings of derision and satire. His project itself is fraught with potential disasters. Imagine searching for words that rhyme with 8216;Camilla8217; or adjectives that creditably showcase Charles? And it keeps getting verse and worse. Now Motion is no spring chicken. He has done some commendable funeral verse on the passing away of the queen mother and his first assignment on assuming the title of poet laureate, after the death of Ted Hughes, involved offering a poesy of pretty words to Prince Edward when he married Sophie Rhys Jones. But his latest assignment, it must be admitted, is a formidable challenge. There really is some truth to the lines, 8220;It really doesn8217;t matter who is sitting on the throne/ They are all as dull as dish-water and should be left alone.8221;

Which brings us to the moot question of why on earth would a reasonably sensible nation wish to hang on to anachronisms like poet laureates or, indeed, royal families. Novelist J.G. Ballard, known for his bald observations on life, spoke for a lot of Britishers when he observed after a reading of Motion8217;s 8216;Epithalamium8217; 8212; his last royal wedding offering 8212; that 8220;the poem proved that it8217;s time to discontinue the office of Poet Laureate in the hope that the Royal Family will follow soon after.8221; Unfortunately, the project may take a wee bit more time. Meanwhile, Motion will have to soldier on with the necessary words and emotions.