Coming in to Land

From Englands former Poet Laureate, a collection of selected poetry spanning his celebrated career, presented for the first time by an American publisherAndrew 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."e;Though the territory of his exploration may be murky and miredthe front lines of war, political entanglements, romantic longing, and human sufferingMotions 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 poets home, on the steps leading up to Anne Franks annex, or wading in the Norfolk broads, Motions richly imagined landscapes contain unspoken mysteries underneath the poets candor. In the tradition of English pastoral poetry that includes Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, and William Wordsworth, these poems skate over sweeping empires and plumb emotional depths, settling in a meditative, understated register. As an introduction to one of Englands most lauded living poets, English Elegies offers a moving depiction of this writers career as a chronicler of modernitys pitfalls and triumphs.