Rhyme'n'Motion

AS Poet Laureate, a desire to see good writing nurtured comes with the territory for Andrew Motion. An event in York tomorrow provides an opportunity for him to promote the work of young Irish poet Colette Bryce. Motion and Bryce are reading their work in Poetry Doubles at the Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate.

It's the first of a series of between four and six such events a year, in which established and promising poets appear side by side.

He says: "I like Colettes Bryce's poetry and I'm a strong supporter of the idea that writers who have been around for a long time and who are in a position to 'help' other writers, if that's the right word, should do so. The premise of Poetry Doubles is a very good one."

His work as Poet Laureate is split two ways. As well as writing for traditional events, such as those associated with royalty, he visits schools and aims to improve both awareness of poetry and the way it is taught, partly through chivvying people in government. He sees grounds for optimism.

"The situation with poetry in schools is perhaps both better and more difficult than it was a generation ago.

"There are more poets going into schools now but with examinations putting more pressure on pupils, this exerts a contrary pull.

"The Government does appear to be increasingly alive to the difficulties this creates for the teaching of poetry specifically and the creative arts generally."

This will come as a relief to people concerned about Education Secretary Charles Clarke's alleged comments that "education for its own sake is a bit dodgy".

Motion aims to encourage talent in his position as Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. But is this a subject that can be taught?

"Yes, it is," he says. "The analogy that I would make is that you don't think there is anything unusual about sending children to drama school or to ballet school. That's not to say you can wade around the oyster bed prising open pearls, but if the talent is there, teaching can help it to grow."

Characteristics of the great poets, he says, include "clarity, vitality of language, surprise, and an ability to make people feel their own lives are being illuminated by someone else".

Motion's work includes four biographies, most famously the authorised life of Philip Larkin, whom he met while lecturing in English at the University of Hull during the late 1970s.

Earlier this year he published a novel. The Invention Of Dr Cake has a poetic theme, speculating on what the Romantic poet John Keats might have done with his life had he not died in his mid-twenties.

I ask him if novel writing came as something of a 'relaxation' from poetry or whether sheer volume made it harder work. Alan Bennett, talking about Larkin's preference for poetry once said that it "makes less mess".

"That's certainly true," says Motion, who replies 'perhaps' when asked if he will write another novel.

"Writing poetry is over sooner. On the other hand, a lot of writers like to have something that they can work on over a long period. I rather envy novelists their long haul!"

Riding Lights and Read Write York are presenting Poetry Doubles tomorrow, at

6.30pm and 8.45pm at the Friargate Theatre. Tickets are £10.

Box office: 0845 961 3000.

Updated: 08:59 Wednesday, May 28, 2003