Poet Laureates
Curator Dr Susan Jenkins shares more about the lives and poetry of nine Poet Laureates who are buried or memorialised in Poets' Corner.
The official post of ‘Poet Laureate’ (laureate meaning crowned with laurels) in the United Kingdom, is held by a distinguished poet chosen by the monarch who is attached to the royal household. Their main task is to compose poems that commemorate important national events such as coronations, royal births and birthdays. Chroniclers and poets wrote informally about royal events for centuries, including Ben Jonson who was unofficially referred to as a poet laureate.
In 1668, John Dryden was the first poet to be officially appointed to the role by formal warrant from King Charles II, when the salary included a barrel of Canary wine and the length of service was determined by being in royal favour. Explore nine Poet Laureate’s from history who are buried or memorialised in the Abbey.
John Dryden (1631-1700)
Poet Laureate from 1668-88
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. Dryden was best-known for his heroic couplets; his topical satires, plays and his translation of The Works of Virgil (1697).
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.
‘Thy throne is darkness in th’abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight’
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
Thomas Shadwell (c.1640-1692)
Poet Laureate from 1688-92
'Love in their little veins inspires,
their cheerful notes, their soft desires.'
Love in their little veins inspires (1675?)
Thomas Shadwell was chosen to succeed John Dryden as poet laureate and historiographer royal for life. Enormously fat and addicted to opium (from which he died), Shadwell introduced the practice of writing a celebratory new year poem and of composing an annual ode on the monarch’s birthday (this was discontinued after 1820).
The Shadwell family lost its fortune supporting the Royalists in the civil war, but the poet later found patrons amongst Charles II’s Whig circle of court wits, including the libertine earl of Rochester. Celebrated for his plays including The Sullen Lovers (1668) and The Virtuoso (1676), which was a satire on the Royal Society, Shadwell set the fashion for adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedies. His fierce literary feud with his predecessor, saw Dryden satirise him in his poem MacFlecknoe (1676).
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718)
Poet Laureate from 1715-18
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. 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.
'The brave do never shun the light;
Just are their thoughts, and open are their tempers'
The Brave (1736?)
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet Laureate from 1813-43
‘curling and whirling and purling and twirling,
And thumping and plumping and bumping and jumping,'
The Cataract of Lodore (1820)
Robert Southey was appointed poet laureate in 1813, through the influence of his acquaintance, Sir Walter Scott. He was close friends with several poets including Samuel Taylor Coleridge (who became his brother-in-law) and William Wordsworth, his neighbour in the Lake District.
Expelled from Westminster School in 1792 for declaring that corporal punishment was invented by the devil, Southey developed radical political convictions for which he was ridiculed when he became poet laureate. He took the role seriously and was considered to be self-important, attracting criticism from Lord Byron for his poem A Vision of Judgment, composed on the death of King George III. His writings reflect his love of Portugal and Spain, and include Poets’ Pilgrimage to Waterloo (1816) and the History of the Peninsular War (1823-32).
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William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Poet Laureate from 1843-50
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 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.
‘I wandr’ed lonely as a cloud,
That floats on high o’er vales and hills'
I wandr’ed lonely as a cloud (1804)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92)
Poet Laureate 1850-92
'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.'
In Memoriam A.H.H. (Canto 27) (1850)
Alfred Tennyson was appointed as poet laureate by Queen Victoria in 1856, who described him as ‘very peculiar looking, tall, dark, with a fine head, long black flowing hair and a beard – oddly dressed but there is no affectation about him’.
Much of Tennyson’s poetry dwelt morbidly on suicide and death. In Memoriam, the work that established his fame, was written in 1833 to commemorate the unexpected death, of his great friend (and sister’s fiancé), Arthur Hallam. Prince Albert admired the poem, which was finally published (anonymously) in 1850. Another lifelong theme in Tennyson’s work was the Legend of King Arthur, as seen in The Lady of Shalott; Morte d’Arthur and Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere.
Queen Victoria and her poet laureate expressed a strong affection for each other and the queen was comforted by Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, published in January 1862, in memory of her deceased husband, Prince Albert. Tennyson’s first independent publication on becoming poet laureate was Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, which came out on the day of Wellington’s funeral in November 1852.
John Masefield (1878-1967)
Poet Laureate 1930-67
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 fine account of the life of a common soldier in Gallipoli (1916) and his most popular work Reynard the Fox (1919).
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.
‘When I am buried, all my thoughts and acts,
Will be reduced to lists of dates and facts.’
Biography (1912)
Sir John Betjeman (1927-84)
Poet Laureate 1972-84
'What a treat to hear Thy Word,
Where the bones of leading statesmen
Have so often been interr’d.'
In Westminster Abbey (1940)
Sir John Betjeman was called ‘the laureate of contemporary death’ by his critics. His nostalgic, humorous writing saw him use light verse for serious purposes and he frequently satirised contemporary life in poems such as Ghastly Good Taste (1933). He was taught by the poet T.S. Eliot then became a journalist for the Architectural Review (1930) and a much-loved national figure as a broadcaster.
Betjeman was a truly popular poet, who held the preservation of buildings and monuments close to his heart, creating memorable quotes such as ‘Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough’. He celebrated his membership of the Church of England and Christian faith in poems including Old Lights for New Chancels (1940) and New Bats in Old Belfries (1945).
In 1958, Betjeman’s Collected Poems were published and two years later he received the Queen’s medal for poetry and was appointed a CBE. A knighthood followed in 1969, making his appointment as poet laureate three years later, an inevitable and popular move.
Ted Hughes (1930-98)
Poet Laureate 1984-98
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 Season Songs (1975).
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.
‘But water will go on
Issuing from heaven
In dumbness uttering spirit brightness
Through its broken mouth’.
River (1983)
Poet Laureate's in the 21st century
In the 21st century popular poet laureates including Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy and the current postholder Simon Armitage, have adapted the role to suit their own voice. It’s now a fixed position held for 10 years at an annual salary of £5,750.
To mark the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior, Simon Armitage wrote the poem The Bed. It was written specifically for the service that was held in Westminster Abbey on 11th November 2020, and performed by Simon Armitage.
