Poet laureate marks royal wedding

Mr Motion wanted to acknowledge how people felt about the day

The furore surrounding the wedding of Camilla Parker Bowles to Prince Charles is dealt with by poet laureate Andrew Motion in his poem for the occasion.

Spring Wedding describes the marriage as a "piece of news", while he talks of the "scandal-flywheel whirring round".

The troubled history of the pair's relationship is also dealt with.

Mr Motion told the BBC he had tried to acknowledge the range of feelings people felt about the marriage.

He said the relationship "was now running its proper course" and he had used the image of a stream to convey the difficulties the couple had faced.

Prince Charles had sent him a letter, and the couple "seemed to like it very much", he added.

Andrew Motion has been poet laureate since 1999.

Spring Wedding

I took your news outdoors, and strolled a while
In silence on my square of garden-ground
Where I could dim the roar of arguments,
Ignore the scandal-flywheel whirring round,

And hear instead the green fuse in the flower
Ignite, the breeze stretch out a shadow-hand

To ruffle blossom on its sticking points,
The blackbirds sing, and singing take their stand.

I took your news outdoors, and found the Spring
Had honoured all its promises to start
Disclosing how the principles of earth
Can make a common purpose with the heart.

The heart which slips and sidles like a stream
Weighed down by winter-wreckage near its source -
But given time, and come the clearing rain,
Breaks loose to revel in its proper course.