Coming in to land : selected poems 1975-2015
(Book)

"From England's former Poet Laureate, a collection spanning his celebrated career, presented for the first time by an American publisher. Andrew Motion has said, "I want my writing to be as clear as water. I want readers to see all the way through its surfaces into the swamp." Though the territory of his exploration may be murky and mired--the front lines of war, political entanglements, romantic longing, and human suffering--Motion's conversational tone and lyrical style make for clear, bold poems that speak to contradictions at the heart of the human condition. Whether underground in an urban metro, in the poet's home, on the steps leading up to Anne Frank's annex, or tracing his father's footsteps in Normandy in 1944, Motion's richly imagined landscapes contain unspoken mysteries underneath the poet's candor. In the tradition of English pastoral poetry that includes Ted Hughes, John Clare, and William Wordsworth, these poems sweep through the aftermath of empire and plumb emotional depths, settling in a meditative, understated register. As an introduction to one of England's most lauded living poets, Coming in to Land offers a moving depiction of this writer's career as a chronicler of modernity's pitfalls and triumphs."--Dust jacket.