Poet Laureates

John Dryden, the eldest of fourteen children, was a King’s Scholar at Westminster School from around 1644, when the Headmaster was the charismatic disciplinarian Richard Busby (also buried in the Abbey).

Dryden came from a Puritan family and he wrote a poem to mark Oliver Cromwell’s funeral. His poems Astraea Redux (1660) and the modern epic Annus Mirabilis (1667) secured the approval of the newly-restored King Charles II and his appointment as poet laureate in 1668, combined in 1670 with the role of historiographer royal, the monarch's official historian. Dryden was best-known for his topical plays and his translation of The Works of Virgil (1697). His best-known three-part allegorical poem The Hind and the Panther was written in 1687 after he converted to Roman Catholicism. The Panther represents the Church of England, whilst the Hind represents the Church of Rome.

He was replaced as poet laureate by Thomas Shadwell after he refused to swear the oath of allegiance to William and Mary because he had converted to Catholicism.

Nicholas Rowe was a popular figure in eighteenth-century literary circles and a great friend of poet Alexander Pope, who wrote the inscription for his monument in Westminster Abbey. Like Dryden before him, Rowe was a King’s Scholar at Westminster School under Headmaster Richard Busby in 1688. After his father’s death, he chose to become a dramatist rather than a barrister.

In keeping with his role as poet laureate, Rowe wrote odes to be sung on the new year and on the king’s birthday, together with other occasional poetry. This includes The Brave which stands out in Rowe’s work for its focus on morality, extolling the virtue of courage. His fame is based however, on the tragic plays he wrote in blank verse, including The Ambitious Stepmother (1700) and Tamerlane (1701), which were performed by the great actors of the day, including Thomas Betterton.

His translation of Lucan’s Pharsalia, published posthumously in 1719, and his publication of the first modern edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1709), for which he is best-known, were praised by the great lexicographer, Dr Samuel Johnson.

William Wordsworth was a central figure in the development of English Romanticism. Born in Cumbria, he published his first poem in the European Magazine in 1787, the year he left school. In 1790 he walked through revolutionary France to the Alps and subsequently adopted radical ideas in the company of close friends Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey.

His poetry was inspired by a love of nature, from at least 1800, when he started living at Dove Cottage in Grasmere, Cumbria with his sister, Dorothy and wife Mary, including Lyrical Ballads, which he co-wrote with Coleridge. Grasmere compositions include To the Cuckoo; To a Butterfly and Composed upon Westminster Bridge. His greatest ode, renamed in 1815, was Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. In I wandr'ed lonely as a cloud, one of his most popular poems, Wordsworth celebrates his great love of nature and of the Lake District featuring ‘A host, of golden daffodils'.

In 1843, aged 73, Wordsworth accepted the post of poet laureate from Queen Victoria with her reassurance that nothing would be required of him, on account of his age.

Despite becoming poet laureate in 1930, John Masefield always considered himself to be a Victorian. His simple manner and narrative poetry were addressed to, and popular with, ‘the common man’.

His early poems such as Salt-Water Ballads (1902) and Dauber (1913) were inspired by his years in the merchant marine, although he was shipped home early as a DBS (distressed British seaman). In 1901, Masefield became a full-time writer, producing a moving account of the life of a common soldier in Gallipoli (1916) and his most popular work Reynard the Fox (1919). His poem Biography captures the relatable style of his writing.

He also tried his hand at plays and novels, including The Tragedy of Nan (1909) and Dead Ned (1938). Masefield was more successful however with children's literature, for instance The Midnight Folk (1927) and he enjoyed helping younger writers. His appointment as poet laureate in 1930 confirmed his popularity and he took the role very seriously, being awarded the Order of Merit in 1935.

Ted Hughes, sometimes characterised as an ‘animal poet’, was a surprise appointment as poet laureate to replace the ‘national treasure’ John Betjeman. Brought up in Yorkshire, Hughes was strongly influenced by his love of the natural world, and his support for environmental and ecological issues is evident in poems such as River (1983).

He published his first poem The Little Boys and the Seasons in 1954, and his first book of poems, The Hawk in the Rain three years later. Hughes also wrote several books and verses for children, including Meet My Folks! (1961); How the Whale Became (1963) and The Iron Man (1968).

His life was affected by the tragic deaths of his wife Sylvia Plath and Assia Wevill and their daughter, Shura , which he explored years later in Birthday Letters (1998). Hughes was appointed poet laureate in 1984 and his first poem in the role, Rain Charm for the Duchy, marked a change in tone for commemorative writing, in terms of associating the role (and by extension the monarch) with global environmental issues.