October 26, 1952

The previous poet laureate, to Carol Ann Duffy, was Andrew Motion (October 26, 1952). He was the first poet to serve a limited term, and so, except for John Dryden, who was fired as poet laureate, Motion is the only one who can say "I was poet laureate." We learned this tidbit from a Guardian article dated March 9, 2009, which interviewed Motion about the honor he was quitting.

Being poet laureate in Great Britain is a tough job, it turns out. Apparently the Queen told him, "you don't have to do anything". Which means, you don't have to write special poems about events of which royalty is a prominent feature. Still, Motion says he felt beneath her smile, another directive. And he in his tenure focused not just on promoting poetry itself as a valuable dimension,-- he wrote some poems for royal events. Duffy has said she is not about to write poems about royal events. Both of them work hard to promote poetry.

Andrew Motion continues to correct what he deems a modern devaluation of poetry -- a position he described as corresponding to the poetry section in book stores. He said:

We're used to reading newspaper stories about the tiny book-audience for poetry, and to visiting bookshops where the poetry shelf is upstairs, at the back, and filled with GCSE texts, anthologies about cats, and the Complete Shakespeare.
How lovely: bookstores in Britain have an upstairs.