Poems about the V&A: 'The British Galleries' by Andrew Motion

'The Great Bed of Ware', carved oak bed, possibly from Ware, Hertfordshire, UK, about 1590. Museum no. W.47-1931

Take the Great Bed of Ware
this never fell
through a thousand feet
of blistered air,
shaking its sleepers out like a
leaf-squall.
That's why it's here.

Or the silver-shot gloves
of that amorous James
handed to those who returned his love:
whatever they show
of the heart's harm
is all in the weave.

Or the fat/thin boards
of the dancing floor
in the Norfolks' house:
their vertical hoard
of empty space
is simply that: a clear
vault where silence is stored.

Or the see-through
brittle lily-pad sky-
of the Crystal Palace:
here no one threw
a single stone, much less
decided to die.
These prove it. These prove
What is true.

About the author

Andrew Motion read English at University College, Oxford and subsequently spent two years writing about the poetry of Edward Thomas for an M. Litt. From 1976 to 1980 he taught English at the University of Hull; from 1980 to 1982 he edited the Poetry Review and from 1982 to 1989 he was Editorial Director and Poetry Editor at Chatto & Windus. From 1999 until 2009 Andrew Motion was Poet Laureate. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in London. He was knighted for his services to literature in 2009. In 2001 Andrew wrote this poem to celebrate the opening of the V&A’s British Galleries.

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