Born in Hamilton, Bermuda, the son of building contractor and land developer Ernest Motyer and Edith Brunning, he was educated at Saltus Grammar School and later (1942–1945) studied English literature at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.
In 1945, after graduation and short periods in the Canadian Army and the University of Toronto, he travelled to England on a Rhodes Scholarship where he read English at Exeter College, studying under Nevill Coghill.
He showed me there was music within free verse that went beyond the confines of rhyming couplets or the metrical movement determined by various relations of long or short, accented or unaccented syllables.
Opening in 1967, Centennial Theatre has played a significant role in the cultural life of the Eastern Townships ever since.
In 1970, he returned to his alma mater where he accepted the position of Purvis Professor of English and associate dean of faculty at Mount Alison University.