For Better of for Verse

The search has begun. Who will be the UK’s next poet laureate? A tradition that has lasted for several decades is now attracting many entries and a lot of existential questions.

The BBC has reported that for the first time it is the British people will have their say in the nomination of the poet laureate.

The current poet laureate is Andrew Motion who was appointed for a term of 10 years starting in May 1999.

He was the first poet laureate to be appointed for a fixed term. Before that, the post was meant to be for life.

Motion told BBC Radio 4's Front Row his successor would be "jerked into a more-or-less public life".

While Andy Burnham the Culture Secretary said it was "exciting to be looking to the future and to appoint a successor" to Motion.

The preface

What is the history behind this tradition? The Times newspaper reports that the job of Poet Laureate was at first that of a straightforward propagandist.

John Dryden was appointed by Charles II in 1668 as the poet laureate. The Times makes a sarcastic allusion calling the him a sort of poetic Alastair Campbell.

The main task of any poet laureate was to write verses for the court and national occasions. Medieval kings are believed to have had a bunch of poets and writers on the payroll.

A royal birthday, royal marriage and military victory etc were often the subjects that a poet laureate wrote about.

Colley Cibber (1730-1757), Nahum Tate (1692-1715) a Laurence Eusden (1718-1730), Nicholas Rowe (1715-1718) etcetera are some of the poets of olden times. This post however, was not reserved for the best poets. Many average writers have also been appointed to the job.

Some 19th century greats include: Robert Southey; William Wordsworth; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; John Masefield; Sir John Betjeman and Ted Hughes still have serious poetic reputations and none of them was a lackey of the administration of his time.

One of the most popular ones was Betjeman.

How do the words fall into place?

The process as explained in the newspaper is quite simple really.
It is up to the queen to make the choice from a list of poets. The nominees are compiled on behalf of the Prime Minister.

It is the Prime Minister who pitches in with his suggestions about the future poet laureate. Then, it is upto the queen to give her nod.

Once that is done, the Lord Chamberlain officially appoints the Poet Laureate by issuing a warrant to the Laureate-elect.

Questions about the role

Motion told the BBC in an interview in September 2008 that the post had been “Most damaging” to his work as a poet.

Also a report in the Guardian suggests that readers criticised Motion's poems. A report in the newspaper quotes from an earlier report – comments of another writer: "The kindest thing to be said about Andrew Motion's latest effort is that it is faithful to an ancient tradition: poets laureate have been writing very bad verses for centuries."

The list

Whatever may be the relevance of this post in modern times, here is a list of people who may be your next poet laureate, according to the Times Newspaper:


Simon Armitage

Carol Ann Duffy

Alice Oswald

Benjamin Zephaniah

Wendy Cope

I am wondering if I should apply,
Especially because of the short supply!