Writers of poetry fit for a queen

Press, 12 June 1984, Page 10

Writers of poetry fit for a queen

After the death last month of the Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, the Queen is without her official poet. The holder of the title Poet Laureate is considered an officer of the household of the British sovereign. The first man to receive the title was John Dryden, who became Poet Laureate in 1670. He was followed by some famous names of English literature, including William Wordsworth, Lord Tennyson, Robert Bridges and John Masefield. English monarchs gave special protection and favour to poets long before the time when the post of Poet Laureate became an official one. Geoffrey Chaucer, for instance, was given a pension and an allowance of wine by Edward 111 in the fourteenth century, and Elizabeth I gave Edmund Spenser a pension in the following century. Some of the poets who were favoured by their monarchs became quite rich. Rahere, who was attached to the court of Henry I, acquired sufficient wealth to endow the monastery and hospital of St Bartholomew. Later, the poet were given an annual grant of money plus a cask of wine. The first Poets Laureate were required to write suitable poems about Royal

birthdays and State occasions, but this was not always necessary later. In ancient Rome, poets and heroes used to be crowned with wreaths of laurel leaves. From there the word laureate, while

literally meaning crowned with laurel, has come to mean honoured or glorious. Sir John Betjeman became Poet Laureate in 1972. His best known poetry deals with ordinary people and everyday life.