ROYAL RHYMES

Rhymes Royal The role of Poet Laureate – the official writer of verses for kings and queens – was first awarded four centuries ago, but how has it evolved?

WORDS NEIL JONES

Five days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a poem entitled Floral Tribute, reflecting on her life of service through the metaphor of her favourite flower, the lily of the valley, was published in her honour. It was the work of Simon Armitage, who as Britain’s Poet Laureate was following in a long line of tradition. Poets Laureate have waxed lyrical about royal events from birthdays and jubilees to weddings and funerals for centuries. Yet their role has also much changed through time.

The title Poet Laureate echoes the Greek/Roman tradition of honouring achievement with a crown of laurel, a tree sacred to Apollo, patron of poets. The acerbically funny actor-playwright Ben Jonson – born 450 years ago this year – was an early appointee when King James I, enamoured with the courtly masques Jonson penned, rewarded him with a pension in 1616, augmented in 1630 by King Charles I with an annual “butt [126 gallons] of Canary wine”.

The appointment of John Dryden as Poet Laureate in 1668 established the post as a royal office to be held for life and to be filled automatically when it became vacant. A master of the classical style, Dryden had deftly navigated volatile times, whether writing Heroic Stanzas (1659) on the death of Cromwell, or welcoming back Charles II at the Restoration with Astraea Redux (1660) and gilding the royal image in Annus Mirabilis 1666. Duly rewarded with £100 a year and the requisite butt of wine, Dryden further endeared himself to Charles while Poet Laureate with satirical attacks against royal enemies.

When Dryden embraced Roman Catholicism just as Catholic James II became king, critics accused the poet of political opportunism. But his refusal to swear an oath of allegiance when Protestant William and Mary came to

Rewarded with £100 a year and a butt of wine, Dryden endeared himself to Charles II with attacks against royal enemies

Henry Pye effused over the marriage of the Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick, though they detested each other

Previous page: Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey Left to right: John Dryden became Poet Laureate in 1668; King Charles II; Queen Caroline of Brunswick; Henry Pye's appointment was likely a reward for political favours the throne in 1689 showed his convictions were genuine – and got him the sack from the laureateship; the only poet (so far!) to be stripped of office.

Dryden’s friend-turned-foe Thomas Shadwell succeeded to the Laureate’s post and began the custom of writing an ode to mark the New Year, as well as odes (often sung) for the sovereign’s birthday, though his efforts proved somewhat lacklustre.

Shadwell’s successor, Nahum Tate, is celebrated today for having penned the popular carol While shepherds watched their flocks by night, but his Laureate poetry, tending to sycophancy, is long forgotten. Writing for George I’s birthday in 1715, he extravagantly declared: “When Kings, that make the publick good their care, / Advance in dignity and state, / Their rise no envy can create…” The Jacobites raised their standard of revolt just a few months later.

Lakeland Poet William

Wordsworth took up the post only when assured he would not be obliged to write official poetry

Cash-strapped country gent Henry Pye, a one-time MP and supporter of Prime Minister William Pitt, became ninth Poet Laureate in line from Dryden and got the traditional allowance of wine replaced by a payment of £27 a year. He effused over “the smiles of wedded love” when the Prince of Wales (later George IV) married Princess Caroline of Brunswick, though in reality the royal couple detested each other. Appointments to uphold the political establishment and second-rate verses aimed at burnishing royal images were diminishing the prestige of the Laureate’s role.

Titan of the literary world Sir Walter Scott, unwilling to write to order, wisely declined an invitation to become the next Poet Laureate, yet as the 19th century dawned, a series of poets stepped up who would restore lustre to the office.

Proposed by Scott, Robert Southey accepted the laureateship in 1813 and was glad of the income (he was caricatured by a contemporary as Mr Feathernest). An erstwhile radical, he ignored jibes that the post meant

he had sold out to the Establishment, remained ensconced at Keswick in the Lake District and quietly avoided writing royal birthday and New Year odes – the ‘curse’ of so many previous poetic Muses.

Southey focused instead on poems for public occasions or on major events, including the Battle of Waterloo (1815) which prompted The Poet’s Pilgrimage to Waterloo: “a little lowly place, / Obscure till now, when it hath risen to fame, / And given the victory its English name.”

Following Southey, who held the laureateship for 30 years, revered Lakeland Romantic poet William Wordsworth, now nearly 73, would take up his late friend’s post only when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him he would not be obliged to write any official poetry – which, uniquely, he didn’t.

Most of all, the quintessential Victorian, Alfred, Lord Tennyson raised the status of the laureateship. The son of a Lincolnshire vicar (you can follow a trail around his childhood haunts), he was appointed to the role in 1850, the same year that he was married and his most enduring work, the elegiac In Memoriam A.H.H. to his friend Arthur Hallam, was published.

Increased fame as Poet Laureate meant Tennyson found his privacy constantly invaded on the Isle of Wight where he had settled (you can follow in his steps on a literary trail here, too), but his work continued to pour forth: from The Charge of the Light Brigade inspired by bravery and disaster at Balaclava in the Crimean War, to On the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. His magnificent Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington segues into poignant humility in its final lines: “Speak no more of his renown, / Lay your earthly fancies down, / And in the vast cathedral leave him. / God accept him, Christ receive him.”

After Tennyson’s death in 1892, the office of Poet Laureate was left vacant for several years while it was

Increased fame as Poet Laureate meant Tennyson found his privacy constantly invaded, but his work continued to pour forth

Clockwise from bottom left: William Wordsworth became Poet Laureate at the age of 73; Wordsworth was inspired by the landscapes of the Lake District; Tennyson's poem on the death of the Duke of Wellington is one of his most famous; Alfred, Lord Tennyson

pondered who could be a worthy successor. Among those who followed, seven were incumbents during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, from John Masefield (of Sea-Fever fame) to Simon Armitage, 21st in line from Dryden. The accessible, wry style of the much-loved Sir John Betjeman (Poet Laureate from 1972) ensured his poetry reached a wide audience, while “royal witch doctor” Ted Hughes (from 1984) baffled and provoked with nature-infused outpourings like Rain-Charm for the Duchy celebrating the occasion of Prince Harry’s christening.

Today the office of Poet Laureate is an honorary position offered to a poet of national significance. There is no requirement to write about royal events, although many incumbents do. The appointment is approved by the monarch acting on the advice of His Majesty’s Government, and since Andrew Motion (1999) the post is for a ten-year tenure. From 1984 the Laureate’s ‘butt of Canary wine’ has been reinstated in the modern form of 720 bottles of sherry per tenure: a goodwill gift from the Sherry Producers of Spain.

Recent Laureates have reinvigorated their role by writing about contemporary issues such as homelessness, while Dame Carol Ann Duffy – the first female incumbent – wrote about the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal in Politics. West Yorkshire-based Armitage captured the experience, shared by many, of being separated from a loved one in hospital during the pandemic in his poignant The Song Thrush and the Mountain Ash (2020).

Modern Laureates have also used their role to promote poetry on the public stage. Armitage donates his Laureate’s Honorarium of £5,000 each year to support his Laurel Prize for the best collection of eco or nature poetry.

Alongside this broadening of scope of course there still remains a strong need for works like Armitage’s poem Floral Tribute, to draw the country together in commemoration of royal occasions and national life: “The country loaded its whole self into your slender hands, Hands that can rest, now, relieved of a century’s weight.”

Left to right: Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight was named after the poet, who lived on the island for nearly 40 years; Queen Elizabeth II presented Simon Armitage with The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry upon his appointment as Poet Laureate

Today the office of Poet Laureate is an honorary position offered to a poet of national significance, approved by the monarch