Poet laureate
Editors' picks
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First female poet laureate
Carol Ann Duffy takes poetry's most prestigious job, succeeding Andrew Motion and line of male poets -
Sisters in poetry
Carol Ann Duffy: I feel a mixture of humility and delight in becoming the new poet laureate. The humility comes from my awareness of the great talent of my peers
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About the poet laureate
There is no definite consensus as to when the post of poet laureate became official, but there is an unbroken line of official court poets which stretches back to Ben Jonson, who was appointed by James I in 1617. Some of the greatest English poets have served as laureate, including John Dryden, Alfred Tennyson, Ted Hughes, though some have preferred to refuse, including John Gray, Walter Scott and Philip Larkin -
Portraits of the poet laureate through the ages
With the announcement that Carol Ann Duffy is the new poet laureate, we take a look at the poets in whose footsteps she follows -
The laureate's poetry is irrelevant to the royal appointment
Robert Potts: Like it or not - and lots of people already don't - the P bit of the PL's job matters little -
'Poetry can speak decisively to power'
Essay: In the build-up to National Poetry Day this week, the poet laureate, Andrew Motion, spoke at a Poet in the City event in the House of Commons about the relationship between poetry and power. This is what he said.
Most recent
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17 Oct 2014: With his followup to Silver, the former poet laureate has written a deeply felt and sincere homage to Robert Louis Stevenson. By Carol Birch -
27 Sep 2014: Britain's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote this poem on the death of her father in 2011
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27 Sep 2014:
Carol Ann Duffy talks to Nicholas Wroe about turning the spotlight on poetry, writing verse for the Queen and why she won't be appearing on I'm a Celebrity
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23 Sep 2014: Britain’s poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote this poem for the Guardian on the morning after the Scottish independence referendum
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29 Aug 2014: Alice Oswald on compiling a bestiary of Ted Hughes's animal poems
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22 Aug 2014:
Merwin brings themes of memory, the natural world and love of place rapturously to life, writes Fiona Sampson
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17 Aug 2014: Andrew Motion: A book that changed me: How the ‘slap and squelch’ of Seamus Heaney’s poems propelled me into verse
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6 Aug 2014:
Edinburgh Art Festival show explores appointed poets from Dryden to Duffy – noting falling deference to the monarch but revived delight in the perk of the sherry sack
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27 Jul 2014:
Celebrities read poems in online video
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2 Jul 2014: Handwritten work given privately to the recently-crowned king made available for the first time
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2 Jul 2014:
Three unseen works written by the poet laureate for the newly-crowned monarch
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4 Jun 2014:
The best, 'peat-slathered', writers on the dark stories and stark geography of these inhospitable regions
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9 May 2014: This selection of Walcott's poetry, edited by Glyn Maxwell, is a reminder of the celebratory texture of the Nobel laureate's work. By Fiona Sampson
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3 Apr 2014: The Ted Hughes estate defends its decision to remove rights to quote from the poet's archive
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2 Apr 2014:
I spent four years immersing myself in every word Hughes wrote; now the estate's co-operation has been withdrawn. What next? By Jonathan Bate
1-15 of 301 for Poet laureate
More Blogs
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National Poetry Day as it happened
Matthew Weaver,3 Oct 2013 11.01 EDT -
Hidden treasures: Sir John Betjeman's Banana Blush
Jon Wilde,15 Feb 2013 05.10 EST -
Surprise artwork pops up for witches on Pendle Hill
Martin Wainwright,21 Aug 2012 13.24 EDT -
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy on the Pendle witches
Martin Wainwright,15 Aug 2012 10.17 EDT -
Book dealers court the press at their peril
Rick Gekoski,26 Apr 2012 04.00 EDT
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Latest reviews
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The New World – Andrew Motion's second Treasure Island sequel
With his followup to Silver, the former poet laureate has written a deeply felt and sincere homage to Robert Louis Stevenson. By Carol Birch