Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Discover the life and work of Sir Andrew Motion (born October 26, 1952), British Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. Explore his poetry, biography, major achievements, and memorable quotations.

Introduction

Sir Andrew Motion is one of the leading English poets of his generation, also known for his roles as biographer, novelist, and public advocate for poetry.

Appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1999, he committed to serving a fixed ten-year term—a departure from tradition.

His work blends lyrical and narrative modes, often reflecting on memory, loss, nature, and the flux of ordinary life.

Early Life and Family

Andrew Motion was born in London on 26 October 1952.

He spent much of his childhood in Stisted, Essex, where his family had roots.

His father, Richard Motion, was from a brewing family (Ind Coope) and the Motion family had a tradition of civic presence.

When Motion was 17, his mother suffered a serious horse-riding accident and remained in and out of a coma for several years before her death. He has said that writing poetry helped him keep her memory alive.

He attended Maidwell Hall as a child, and later Radley College, where a teacher—Peter Way—encouraged his interest in poetry and introduced him to great English and Romantic poets like Keats, Wordsworth, and others.

At University College, Oxford, he read English. During his time at Oxford, he won the Newdigate Prize for undergraduate poetry.

Education & Early Career

After Oxford, Motion obtained an MLitt with a focus on the poetry of Edward Thomas.

Between 1976 and 1980, he taught English at the University of Hull, where he formed a friendship with the poet Philip Larkin.

His first volume of poetry was published while he was at Hull.

Over the following years, Motion held roles in publishing and editing:

• or, Poetry Review (1980–82)

• Poetry or and orial Director at Chatto & Windus (1983–89)

• Later, he succeeded Malcolm Bradbury as Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Poet Laureate & Public Role

On 1 May 1999, Motion became Poet Laureate, succeeding Ted Hughes.

Unlike previous laureates, he declared he would serve only ten years, rather than a life term.

As laureate, he aimed to make the role more engaged with contemporary events. He composed poems on topics such as homelessness, climate change, rail disasters, shell shock, and major national events.

He also founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource with recordings of poets reading their work.

In 2009, he stepped down as laureate; Carol Ann Duffy succeeded him.

He has remarked that the laureateship both brought opportunities and challenges, and that after stepping down, his poetic output revived.

Major Works & Literary Achievements

Poetry Collections

Some of Motion’s significant poetry volumes include:

• The Pleasure Steamers (1978)

• Dangerous Play: Poems 1974–1984 (1984) — winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize

• Natural Causes (1987) — awarded the Dylan Thomas Prize

• Salt Water (1997)

• Public Property (2002)

• The Customs House (2009)

• Peace Talks (2015)

• Essex Clay (2018)

• Randomly Moving Particles (2020)

Prose, Biography & Fiction

Motion has also written biographies and novels:

• Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life (1993) — his work as Larkin’s literary executor and biographer, winning the Whitbread Prize for Biography

• Keats: A Biography (1997)

• The Invention of Dr Cake (novel, 2003)

• Silver (2012) — a sequel to Treasure Island

• In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood (2006)

He has also published essays and writings on places, painters, and poetry in Ways of Life: On Places, Painters and Poets (2008).

Style, Themes & Influence

Motion’s poetry is often characterized by clarity, narrative impulse, and emotional directness. He has spoken of wanting to write in “clear language without tricks.”

He describes the desire to use poetry as a means of self-understanding:

“My wish to write a poem is inseparable from my wish to explain something to myself.”

His poems frequently explore themes of loss, memory, identity, nature, place, and mortality.

Because of his role as laureate, he tried to bridge the private and public realms—writing occasional poetry for national events and speaking of making poetry more accessible.

His literary and public roles have contributed to modern conversations about what a poet can do in society—serving not just as artist, but as a promoter of poetic literacy, archives, and education.

He currently holds a professorship at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., continuing to teach and write.

Famous Quotes of Andrew Motion

Here are several notable quotations by Andrew Motion, reflecting his perspective on poetry, language, loss, and inspiration:

• “Poems are a hotline to our hearts, and we forget this emotional power at our peril.”

• “Nor can we see the coffin of a person we have known, without experiencing some new shock of loss. In this respect, a coffin is like a mirror … we see the image of our own condition …”

• “I shall try to write a poem that is about the moment but doesn’t betray things that are true to me as a poet.”

• “Pretty much the day I stopped being laureate, the poems that had been few and far between came back to me, like birds in the evening nesting in a tree.”

• “I get up at 5.30 am, sluice myself and have two Weetabix and some mint tea, before starting to write by 6am.”

• “I’ve always thought that the balance between the side of my mind that knows what it is doing and the side that really hasn’t got a clue has to be carefully maintained …”

• “If people connect me with the Romantics in general, they probably connect me most with Keats. But Wordsworth is the poet I admire above all others.”

These quotations reveal his humility, attention to craft, and awareness of inner conflict and memory.

Lessons from Andrew Motion

1. Clarity and sincerity in expression
   Motion’s aim to “write in clear language” reminds us that complexity need not come from opacity—in fact, clarity can carry depth.

2. Writing as self-discovery
   His view that poetry helps him understand himself suggests that creative work and personal insight often go hand in hand.

3. Balance between control and spontaneity
   His statements about balancing the knowing and unknowing parts of the mind encourage poets to allow room for surprise.

4. Public engagement does not have to compromise artistry
   His tenure as laureate shows one path of combining public poetic service with serious poetry making.

5. Loss and memory as enduring poetic fuel
   The early tragedy of his mother shaped much of his sensibility; from that, he mined empathy, remembrance, and reflection.

Conclusion

Sir Andrew Motion is a poet who has successfully navigated the lines between public role and private art. His decade as Poet Laureate introduced new approaches to how a poet might engage with national life, while his continuing work as poet, biographer, teacher, and advocate keeps his voice relevant in contemporary poetry.