Editing Andrew Motion (section)

===Laureateship===
Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of [[Ted Hughes]], the previous incumbent. The [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]–winning Northern Irish poet and translator [[Seamus Heaney]] had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary [[Butt (volume)|butt]] of [[Sack (wine)|sack]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Carol Ann Duffy was officially declared as Britain's first female Poet Laureate on May&nbsp;1st 2009. |url=http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/poetlaureate/ |url-status=dead |publisher=The Poetry Society |access-date=21 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510115038/http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/duffy09/poetlaureate/ |archive-date=10 May 2009}}</ref> He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life", rather than be seen as a "courtier". So, he wrote "for the [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] about liberty, about homelessness for [[the Salvation Army]], about bullying for [[ChildLine]], about the [[2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak|foot and mouth outbreak]] for the [[Today (BBC Radio 4)|''Today'' programme]], about the [[Ladbroke Grove rail crash|Paddington rail disaster]], the [[11 September attacks]] and [[Harry Patch]] for the BBC, and more recently about [[Combat stress reaction|shell shock]] for the charity [[Combat Stress]], and climate change for the song cycle he finished for Cambridge University with [[Peter Maxwell Davies]]."<ref name="Lau rels" />

On 14 March 2002, as part of the "Re-weaving Rainbows" event of [[National Science Week]] 2002, Motion unveiled a blue plaque on the front wall of 28 [[St Thomas Street, Southwark|St Thomas Street]], [[Southwark]], to commemorate the sharing of lodgings there by [[John Keats]] and [[Henry Stephens (doctor)|Henry Stephens]] while they were medical students at [[Guy's Hospital|Guy's]] and [[St Thomas' Hospital]] in 1815–16.

In 2003, Motion wrote ''Regime change'', a poem in protest at the [[Invasion of Iraq]] from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2912557.stm |title=Poet laureate writes Iraq lament |publisher=BBC News |date=3 April 2003 |access-date=12 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1215.html |title=Regime Change |access-date=12 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015005834/http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1215.html |archive-date=15 October 2009}}</ref> and in 2005, "Spring Wedding" in honour of the wedding of the [[Prince of Wales]] to [[Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall|Camilla Parker Bowles]]. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109-year-old [[Harry Patch]], the last surviving "[[Tommy Atkins|Tommy]]" to have fought in the [[First World War]], Motion composed a five-part poem, read and received by Patch at the [[Bishop's Palace, Wells|Bishop's Palace]] in [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]] in 2008.<ref>{{cite news|title=Poem honours WWI veteran aged 109|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=7 March 2008 |access-date=7 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311005302/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm |archive-date=11 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

As laureate, he also founded the [[Poetry Archive]], an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do|title=The Poetry Archive|access-date=12 October 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519101308/http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do|archive-date=19 May 2014}}</ref>

Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to [his] work".<ref>{{cite news|title= Laureate bemoans 'thankless' job|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm|work=BBC News Online|date=10 September 2008|access-date=10 September 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080910173623/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7607897.stm| archive-date= 10 September 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters.<ref>{{cite news|title=Andrew Motion to be Poet Laureate|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/19/fiachragibbons.michaelwhite|work=The Guardian |date=19 May 1999|access-date=10 September 2008 | location=London | first=Michael | last=White}}</ref> As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' that concluded: "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry."<ref name="Lau rels">Motion, Andrew (21 March 2009). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/21/andrew-motion-poet-laureate "Yet once more, O ye laurels"]. ''The Guardian'', Access date 2009-03-21.</ref><ref>Harper and Sullivan (2009), ''The Creative Environments: Authors at Work''. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.</ref>

Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, [[Radley College]], before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was. [[Carol Ann Duffy]] succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.