Poet Laureate

laureate originates from Latin laureatus meaning "crowned with laurel" (Kahan, Jeffrey). The title was adopted from the Greek and Roman custom of crowning successful men with a wreath of laurel. Nowadays, the British poet laureate is a member of the Royal household, expected to write poems for official occasions, for example for Royal weddings, birthdays or funerals. The British Poet Laureate was originally awarded the position for life, however, from 1999 the post is limited to 10 years.

The British poet laureate developed from two strands of tradition. In the Renaissance it became customary to award the laurel to writers who not only wrote poems, but who were also well-versed in ancient (i.e. classical) traditions and authors. The Poet Laureate in this sense, had to pass an examination and then was awarded the laurel and the title as an honorary university degree. This custom was not restricted to England (far from it). It originated in Italy (with Petrarch and Tasso as famous poets laureate) and spread all over (Renaissance) Europe. A completely different strand of tradition was the post of "court poet". Medieval and Renaissance monarchs sometimes And "in the early days of the Renaissance, the honorific title came with a degree of political protection" (Kahan, Jeffrey), and with different meanings attached. And there were poets writing at the court of a king or queen. Early writers associated with this non-institutionalised form of the laureateship are John Skelton and Edmund Spenser.

In the Restoration period the best known poet laureate was John Dryden. He was the first, who got the official title that was instituted in 1668 by letters patent granting the office during pleasure (look at: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43805#n1 ). Dryden lost the office after the Glorious Revolution. He had converted to Catholicism when James II came to the throne and this did not go down well with the new monarchs William and Mary and the Whigs.

Duties

The patent for the first laureate John Dryden remained vague about his duties. It merely stipulated him to “diligently attend [his] employment” (quoted in Broadus 61). Dating from Nicholas Rowe’s appointment in 1715, the laureates were obliged to write at least one birthday ode and one New Year’s ode for the monarch. This duty was abolished when William Wordsworth became Poet Laureate in 1843. Since then, the Laureate does not have any official obligations connected with his office.

Nowadays there are poets laureate all over the world: USA, Scotland. Look for details of voting and payment at http://www.loc.gov/poetry/about_laureate.html.

List of Official Laureates

Here is a list of poets laureate:

• John Dryden (1668-89)
• Thomas Shadwell (1689-92)
• Nahum Tate (1692-1715)
• Nicholas Rowe (1715-18)
• Laurence Eusden (1718-30)
• Colley Cibber (1730-57)
• William Whitehead (1757-85)
• Thomas Warton (1785-90)
• Henry James Pye (1790-1813)
• Robert Southey (1813-43)
• William Wordsworth (1843-50)
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1850-92)
• Alfred Austin (1896-1913)
• Robert Bridges (1913-1930)
• John Masefield (1930-67)
• Cecil Day-Lewis (1968-72)
• Sir John Betjeman (1972-84)
• Ted Hughes (1984-98)
• Andrew Motion (1999-2009)

Today's English poet laureate is Andrew Motion. This position is now given by the prime minister and a poet stays in office for ten years until the next one is nominated. The new laureate elect is the first woman ever: Carol Ann Duffy.

Sources

Broadus, Edmund Kemper. The Laureateship. A Study of the Office of Poet Laureate in England. With some Account of the Poets, 1921, repr. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.
Kahan, Jeffrey. "Poet Laureate." The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Ed. David Scott Kastan. Vol. IV. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2007.