Thank you, Jayne. Nahum Tate is the chap who improved King Lear by giving it a happy ending. His version played for many years in place of the original which was just too depressing, eh?

Was John Skelton a Laureate? He said he was

Sorry about the mis-spelling, Ann.

I'll try to remember in future to leave off the "e", Jayn.

This competition - which we should all have seen coming - would be hard enough without our having to mimic a laureate. Tennyson, Betheman and Hughes at least have distinctive styles and themes one can latch on to. Many of the others seem just to have gone in for generic toadying. Now, if they'd made Larkin laureate, we'd have some fun.

O tempora, O more e's

Jubilee

Crow said, What's with this Jubilee stuff?
Wasn't once enough?

Coaches and carriages,
Births and marriages.
Furbelows and fripperies,
Funerals and Jubilees.
Rank and rotten,
Soon forgotten.
Just as well,
Ding dong bell.
But what do I know?
Hell, what do I know,
Said Crow, pulling a worm from the ground
Which he ate with a scrunchy sort of a sound.

You're a long time dead,
Crow said.

Improved (doncha think?)

Jubilee

Crow said, what's with this Jubilee stuff?
Wasn't once enough?
Rank, rotten,
And best forgotten.

Births, marriages,
Funerals and Jubilees.
Coaches, carriages,
Furbelows and fripperies.

But Liz rules OK,
That's what they say.
And what do I know,
Hell, what do I know?

Crow pulled a worm from the ground.
He ate it with a scrunchy sort of a sound.
You're a long time dead, said Crow.
Mind how you go.

A good one, John (..."with a scrunchy sort of sound"...)

I'll forgiv you if you somtims forgt to put th 'e' in Jayn, Brian, but I tnd to gt a bit mor annoyd whn popl omit th 'y' from my nam.

But there are worse things than that, Jayne. It took me ages to live down the day at school when I received a letter from a slightly dyslexic friend addressed to "Brain Allgar".

My husband's friend Alan used to know a man called Brian Tuma. Honestly.

Of all the names - whatever were his parents thinking of?

Jayne

I took a run at Tennyson:

Boadicea led our dauntless island race
In savage times when rebel fire was needed.
To her strength hast thou added calm and grace
As history’s call in this age thou hast heeded.

Sounds exactly like Tennyson all the way through the first word. Kinda drops off after that. So I'm going with Cibber.