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  • Essay / The Cinder Path: Andrew Motion's move from royal to public

    'I want my writing to be as clear as water. No ornate language; very few obvious tricks. I want readers to be able to see through its surfaces to the swamp. I want them to feel like they're in a world they thought they knew, but which turns out to be stranger, more fraught, more disturbed than they thought. (Andrew Motion)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay With Andrew Motion, poetry comes as “spontaneously” as with William Wordsworth, without any obstacle of thoughts blocking the way, without hindrances creating no problem and no obstacles in choosing between topics to write about. Named poet laureate in May 1999, Motion has indeed acquired great appreciation for his "royal poems", but this does not limit his prospects of discovery to a few chosen subjects such as the marriage of Prince Edward, the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother or the death of one of the royal personages. Poetry, for him, is something more than simply trying his pen on these subjects; it is the “supreme art form”, something like a “direct line to our deepest feelings”. If we take a quick look at Motion's career as poet laureate and consider his ideas of accepting the title of laureate as a job, we can fully grasp his point. about poetry in particular and how, he thought, poetry worked. Unaware of the nature of the work assigned to him as poet laureate, Motion "felt from the start that it was more of a call to arms." He believed from the beginning that "the role of laureate should change from that of a courtier to something more appropriate to modern times, which would benefit poetry." In his view, simple language, familiar themes, attractive subjects, and, above all, a feeling of "self-interest" were all that poetry should contain. But because a poet laureate's poetry seemed to lack almost all of the elements mentioned above due to the predetermined demands of the task, Motion was at first disconcerted before finally accepting his work. “I must admit,” Motion said of his royal poems, “that no other writing I have undertaken, of any kind, has been so difficult. » This difficulty, apparently, came from the detachment and distance he felt from the Royal Family or any of their events. Although each member of the royal family is expected to be of supreme interest to the general public, few people would like to waste time reading (or understanding) poems about their activities. Motion was aware of this and, to some extent, was also afraid of it. “How could I connect to them,” Motion asked, “knowing only what the newspapers were telling me?” This obstacle, one might assume, could have easily limited his vision and restricted his approach to creativity, but we see no evidence of this in his poems. He did not allow the title winner to exercise his creative powers. Instead, he rose quite high from his role as poet laureate to that of a poet sufficiently sensitive to the issues of greatest concern and he treated these issues so intimately that it made him a poet winner. his readers believe that he wrote for them all. “My underlying feeling,” Motion said, “is that poetry should be a part of life in general rather than being ghettoized.” He also believed that "primitive poetry" was "a fundamental requirement of the human spirit." These opinions apparently seem a little out of place for a poet laureate who has the responsibility of creatingroyal poetry about the royal people and royal matters. But Motion devoted himself to his poetic vision from the start and even more freely, after giving up being a prizewinner. For him, “primitive pleasures” were very important and he asserted that if we “ignore or suppress our primitive pleasures, we deny ourselves something essential.” He also claimed that: "In this regard, and remembering Keatsgrande's remark that poetry 'had better not come at all' if it 'does not come as easily as the leaves of a tree' , I would say that poetry is as natural and necessary as breathing. He undoubtedly enjoyed his title of winner, but leaving this title did him no harm. “I'm glad I did it,” Motion said, “and I'm glad to give it up, especially since I intend to continue working for poetry. » In The Cinder Path, Motion's famous collection after relinquishing its laureate title, we discover a variety of poems, including lyrics, elegies and love poems, which deal more closely with feelings and emotions experienced by ordinary humans. The themes are so identifiable with events in our own lives that we get carried away with the flow, experiencing every emotion with the poet's characters. It is simple and lucid in its expression, with an occasional and unstoppable urge to create darkness. His conversational style and clarity of expression make his poems interesting and since it is a fact that "complexity hinders understanding", readers of Motion have virtually no difficulty grasping the poet's views woven into the fabric. clear from his poems. The title poem, 'The Cinder' Path', is one of the most significant poems in the collection. The Cinder Path is also the title of a landscape painted by Spencer Gore, which is an alienated, lonely and ashen path and of course, a much hated and feared path as imagined along the red carpet. The poem can be seen as a direct allusion to Motion's experience of walking the ordinary path as an ordinary poet while keeping his own voice true and clear. This short ten-line poem encompasses his entire experience of creating poetry as a former poet laureate. “I know what it means,” the poem begins, “to choose the path to ashes,” clearly showing that the poet is well aware of what could happen to him after renouncing his title of laureate. "You", in the next line, probably refers to ordinary people for whom this change may seem like nothing less than a "death" (of fame, of readership, of appreciation), but the character prefers to “giving trouble with the world” despite the fact that the “sign in front” bears “no inscription” to lead him further on his life’s journey. The final lines are filled with strength, perseverance and courage on the part of the poet/character, as he is also "tough" like the strong "elm" and is endowed with the strength to endure all difficulties (criticism, jealousy, etc.) who are waiting. for him, as the “oily green flame” (green being the symbol of either jealousy or, more positively, food/life/prosperity, etc.). The poem reminds us of Robert Frost's masterpiece, "The Road Not Taken." Both poems deal with the idea of ​​choosing a "path" and the possible consequences of their decisions. Motion seems to be quite firm about the reliability of his choice, but Frost feels "sorry" because he "couldn't travel with both." We find him sighing at the end as he believes that not having chosen "the other way" has "made all the difference". With the transition from royal numbers to public numbers, we also notice thechange of diction and style in The Cinder. Path. Poems are no longer slaves to a particular “goal” that the poet is trying to achieve. Language here becomes demotic and spontaneous. Thematic and stylistic concerns shift from the general to the personal and the poems now "cling" to the "deepest and most urgent feelings" which flow like water and burst like "the mighty fountain" like that which Coleridge gives us view in Kubla Khan. . Despite the fact that this water passes through "caverns beyond measure for man" (deep feelings of humans, in the case of Motion), but unlike Kubla Khan, it does not fall "into a sunless sea", but emerges towards us and brings with it the poet's most personal experiences in their most original form. This experience is exhilarating for the poet as well as for his readers. "Almost the day I ceased to be a laureate," says Motion, "the poems which were rare and until then between came back to me, like birds in the evening resting in a tree. Nostalgia for the past, the Childhood memories, memories of "places" and feelings of "loss" and "desolation" are recurring in his poems in this collection The poet "remembers" past events and visualizes the memories as brilliantly as he does. Wordsworth, with a very obvious difference in the dominance of the sense of loss in Motion as opposed to Wordsworth's memories which make his heart so exalted that it "dances with the daffodils" "The Break" is one of those poems that. takes him back to his past to realize that things are "changing" as he can no longer "cast a shadow" to the place where he once went crabbing as a boy, reminding us of the famous statement Wordsworth makes in the abbey from Tintern when he visited the place years after his first visit: “…I cannot paint/what I was then.” Just as Wordsworth's feelings at this moment bring him "life and sustenance/for years to come," Motion's longing draws him into temporary despair throughout the poem until the final point when "the lighthouse rises/a trumpet to his lips again,” leaving readers with a hope similar to that of Wordsworth’s “food” for years to come. The choice of words speaks for itself since Motion talks about “change” in a very interesting way, with “Nothing changes; Nothing changes” at first, then he realized that “it’s all a lie, it’s all a lie.” It is quite ironic that after knowing the title of laureate, Motion suggested to his successor to "write royal poems only when a major event in the life of the royal family is linked by mutual agreement to the meaningful life of the country. And not otherwise", but when it comes to choosing subjects for his ordinary poems, he does not hesitate to write about insignificant subjects like visiting a place after a long time ("The Break"), observing his brother at night while he's sleepwalking ("Meeting at Night"), taking a break with his brother while their father is dying in the hospital ("Passing on"), choosing a path ("Cinder Path") or even something as trivial as a goodnight kiss ("A Goodnight Kiss"). As ironic as it may seem when we observe this contrast, it is certainly the privilege of the poet to remember and fix a moment in time, to order the poetic universe as he sees fit, however trivial the subject of the poem. A simple poem, “The Stone,” may also be helpful in observing Motion's shift from royal to ordinary subjects. It seems rather strange that a poet writing about the events in the lives of royal personages would stoop too low to begin to.’