SWINDON LITERARY FESTIVAL: Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has more letters after his name than most words have in the poems he writes.

The learned Mr Motion, BA, MA, M.Lit, D.Lit, is as well known for his biographies as he is for his poems. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Last night he appeared for the first time in six years at the Swindon Festival of Literature, delighting the Arts Centre audience with recitals and reminiscences.

Unperturbed by the squeaking chairs of latecomers, he read extracts from his latest collection of poetry, Public Property.

Drawing the Curtains describes how the poet viewed the dying day from the comfort of his living room, only for it to disappear as his mother pulled the drapes across the windows an image he remembers from his childhood.

Another poem, Sparrow, reflects sadly on the dwindling number of this much-loved bird from the English countryside.

Mr Motion said: "Sparrows are the emblems of the commonplace."

As Poet Laureate, he is responsible for writing about royal occasions, such as the death of Princess Margaret, about whom he composed a work entitled The Younger Sister, the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother, and the tragedy of Princess Diana.

In the question and answer session that concluded the hour long talk, Mr Motion was asked to describe his stance on what is perhaps the most famous and enigmatic line of John Keats.

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty', taken from the Romantic poet's Ode on a Grecian Urn, is for Mr Motion all about emotion.

He said: "The way we feel about a thing allows us to understand the essence of it. If we can get hold of that then we can understand it."

He then discussed the poetry of Bob Dylan. "I deeply admire him," he said. "He's a genius. I'm longing to meet him.

"I've been trying to persuade him to record some of his poems."

Mr Motion's works include the poetry anthologies Salt Water, The Price of Every-thing, and Love in a Life about his marriage to journalist Jan Dalley and the Philip Larkin biography A Writer's Life.

By Alex Emery