English literature poet laureate
John Dryden (1631-1700).
Laureate 1668-88.
Appointed in 1668 by King Charles II, who gave John Dryden a formal royal warrant that awarded him the official titles of Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal. This role continued under King James II.
As a powerful satirist, Dryden was a strong advocate and spokesman for his monarch, and "the best poet, dramatist, translator and critic of the age" [Levin in Verses of the Poets Laureate]
In 1689, sacked [or fired] by William III for failing to take an oath of allegiance.
Thomas Shadwell (1643?-1692).
Laureate 1689-92.
The successful dramatist Thomas Shadwell was chosen in large part because he was a Protestant Whig, essential to replace the Catholic Dryden. met an inglorious end in 1693,
A weak poet, a heavy drinker, and an opium user, Shadwell died from an overdose of opium, which he took in part to relieve his gout. He was said to have found the laureateship unimportant. Disrespected by John Dryden, among others, for his poetry as well as for his politics.
Shadwell wrote a yearly ode on the monarch's birthday, and introduced the tradition of writing a New Year ode; his odes are crashingly uninspired and mechanistic, as if written by an unusually dimwitted computer program.
Nahum Tate (1652-1715).
Laureate 1692-1715.
Born in Dublin, Tate was awarded the Poet Laureate position (and its £100 per year) but the post of Historiographer Royal (and its annual £200) became a separate assignment.
Tate is most known today for his authorship of the widely loved Christmas carol "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night". He is notorious for his (creative?) revision of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, giving it a happy ending.
In response to public events, Tate wrote poems for victories against the French (1704), the Act of Union between the Parliaments of England and Scotland (1707), and the signing of the Peace of Utrecht with France (1713).
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718).
Laureate 1715-18.
Nicholas Rowe was celebrated as a dramatist rather than as a poet. The Poet Laureate's role was now general praise of the sovereign, rather than political and historical. In addition to the annual New Year ode, the Laureate acquired the duty of writing a birthday ode to the monarch, a practice which was to last over 100 years.
Laurence Eusden (1688-1730).
Laureate 1718-30.
Eusden never published a book of poetry. His work is mediocre.
Colley Cibber (1671-1757).
Laureate 1730-57.
The poetry of dramatist Colley Cibber was conscientious but not inspired.
William Whitehead (1715-85).
Laureate 1757-85. [The appointment was first offered to and declined by Thomas Gray.]
William Whitehead (a respectable though perhaps dull dramatist) was good humored and amiable. For example, he defended the poetry of Laureates in a comic poem "A Pathetic Apology For All Laureates, Past, Present, And To Come".
Whitehead was conscientious, and saw himself as a non-partisan spokesman for the whole country. Astonishingly for a political appointee, he appeared to see no requirement "to defend the King or support the government". Sadly, this reflects the idea that the Laureate's influence had weakened so much that the official poems were unlikely to influence opinions, even though the times were important politically, with rebellion in the American colonies and war in Europe.
Thomas Wharton (1728-90).
Laureate 1785-90. Professor of Poetry at Oxford, Wharton was the only eighteenth-century laureate who was not primarily a dramatist. William Wordsworth andSamuel Taylor Coleridge admired his work.
Henry James Pye (1745-1813).
Laureate 1790-1813.
Before Pye's appointment, the Sovereign or the Lord Chamberlain (a member of the Royal Household) awarded the Poet Laureateship directly. William Pitt (the first Prime Minister involved in appointing a Laureate) offered the position to Henry James Pye, a politician more than a poet. Thereafter, the Prime Minister submits names for royal approval. Then the monarch commands the Lord Chamberlain to issue a warrant of appointment.
Robert Southey (1774-1843).
Laureate 1813-43. [In a bizarre double-offer the appointment was offered to two writers concurrently. Fortunately, Sir Walter Scott turned down the approach by Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool.]
Robert Southey accepted the suggestion of the post from the Prince Regent. When Scott declined the offer, he suggested Southey also, so the situation ended well.
During Southey's tenure, George IV became monarch in 1820, and abandoned the requirement for regular odes to the monarch.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
Laureate 1843-50.
William Wordsworth, at 73, was the oldest Poet Laureate to be appointed. He accepted the position on the agreement that he would not have obligations to write poetry on demand.
Since Wordsworth, the job of Poet Laureate has been purely honorary, and appointees have been able to interpret the role as they wish.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92).
Laureate 1850-92. [The appointment was first offered to and (to our benefit) declined by Samuel Rogers.]
Alfred Tennyson raised the stature of the Poet Laureate hugely. His laureate poems include The Charge Of The Light Brigade(the suicidal charge by the Light Brigade down a valley at Balaclava during the Crimean war).
Tennyson's death was mourned publicly by millions. In respect, no appointment was made to the post of Poet Laureate for four years.
Alfred Austin (1835-1913).
Laureate 1896-1913.
A pompous man, least successful of the Poets Laureate.
Robert Bridges (1844-1930).
Laureate 1913-30.
Uninterested in fame and praise, Bridges wrote little and destroyed his papers before his death.
John Masefield (1878-1967).
Laureate 1930-67.
Born in Ledbury, Herefordshire, England, Masefield apprenticed to be a merchant marine officer. While training, he became ill in Chile, returned to England, then worked in factories and bars in the United States. In 1897 he returned to England, working on newspapers and his own writing (poems, stories, and plays). Masefield published his first volume of poems in 1902. He served during World War I in the Red Cross in France and on a hospital ship at Gallipoli. His simple and moving poems include the famous Sea Fever.
Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-72).
Laureate 1968-72.
Anglo-Irish Cecil Day-Lewis was a poet, critic, and educator who enjoyed the honor of being the Poet Laureate. A student at Oxford with Auden. A committed Communist though naive politically. Hi poetry are often romantic and melancholy. Also he wrote detective stories (using the pseudonym Nicholas Blake).
Sir John Betjeman (1906-84).
Laureate 1972-84.
Born in Highgate (North London). Sir John Betjeman wrote humorous and accessible poetry. Betjeman commemorated royal events such as The Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.
Ted Hughes (1930-98).
Laureate 1984-1998. [Appointed on the refusal of poet Philip Larkin.]
Born in Yorkshire. A fierce, sometimes ferocious, poet of the natural and the mythological worlds, of "the struggle in the soil as well as in the soul" [Levin in Verses of the Poets Laureate]. Also authored poetry and plays for children.
Despite the "no obligations" clause, Hughes did write in commemoration of royal events, such as the christening of Prince Henry of Wales in 1985.
Andrew Motion (1952-present).
Laureate 1999-2012.
Andrew Motion, an acclaimed poet and biographer, teaches creative writing at the University of East Anglia. He promotes poetry among young people. His poems addressing many public events as well and royal occasions, including the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. A critic, and a free-form poet who interweaves the personal, the historical, the legendary, and the political.
Carol Ann Duffy (1955-present). Laureate 2009-present.
Carol Ann Duffy (poet, university professor, playwright, and freelance writer) is the first woman and the first Scottish-born poetry to be appointed Poet Laureate. She graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Liverpool in 1977.
Her books like Feminine Gospels (2002) and Mrs Scrooge show her skill in long narrative poems, written in an accessible style and often including surreal imagery. Other work, like Rapture (2005) are poems of passion and love. She also writes poetry (such as The Hat, 2007) for children.
Not-quite Poets Laureate of Great Britain.
These poets were not Poets Laureate, for the reasons given.
Ben Jonson (1573-1637), a playwright and poet, a volatile satirist of explosive temperament and "a great lover and praiser of himself", was not formally appointed as Poet Laureate. John Dryden was the first appointed Poet Laureate, as shown by the official royal record (starts in a new window).
At best, Jonson was a "common law" poet laureate (as in "common law" husband).
Some believe Jonson to be the greatest English poet and dramatist of the seventeenth century. Many praise his charm and good humor. His vigor and productivity is clear.
Jonson learned the trade of bricklayer, fought with English troops in Flanders, then returned to London to become an actor and playwright, a writer of masques (short pageant-like plays), and a tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh's son.
In 1597 Jonson was imprisoned for involvement in the satire The Isle of Dogs, which authorities found seditious. He was tried for killing a fellow actor in a duel in 1598. Imprisioned for this, he converted to Catholicism to be spared death for murder. He was released provided that he forfeit all his possessions, and that he receive a felon's brand on his thumb.Charged with treason for his tragedy Sejanus, His Fall (1603) and then briefly imprisoned for views in Eastward Ho (1604), Jonson (a Catholic) was under deep suspicion after Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot (1605). This situation may have motivated him, shortly thereafter, to reconvert to Anglicanism. He did become court poet to King James I.
One of Jonson's most famous poems, "To Celia", begins "Drink to me, only, with thine eyes...". Buried upright in Westminster Abbey, standing on his feet in the northern aisle of the Nave (and not in Poets' Corner) beneath the inscription "O Rare Ben Johnson"
William Davenant, or Sir William D'Avenant. After Jonson's death, dramatist Davenant [D'Avenant] inherited Jonson's office and pension, again as an unofficial appointment
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