[Jayne Osborn]

I thought you might find it useful to see the chronological list of Poets Laureate for this comp: how public-spirited is that, then?

John Dryden (1631-1700)
Thomas Shadwell (1642-1692)
Nahum Tate (1652-1715)
Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718)
Laurence Eusden (1688-1730)
Colley Cibber (1671-1757)
William Whitehead (1715-1785)
Thomas Wharton (1728-1790)
Henry James Pye (1745-1813)
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
Alfred Austin (1835-1913)
Robert Bridges (1844-1930)
John Masefield (1878-1967)
Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972)
Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Andrew Motion (1952- )
Carol Ann Duffy (1955- )

Jayne

From Lucy Vickery:

No. 2749: Jubilee lines
You are invited to submit a poem, written by a poet laureate from the past, to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (16 lines maximum). Please email entries, where possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 21 May (the shorter deadline is because of a Jubilee double issue).

[Susan d.S.]

Fun to see how many are not much read these days.

[basil ransome-davies]

But christ, do you wonder? I believe Colley Cibber & Alfred Austin tie for the role of Most Crap Laureate.

[Orwn Acra]

On the plus side, they've managed four great laureates in four hundred years (two of them back-to-back).

[Susan d.S.]

And a bunch of them (Cibber, Shadwell, Southey) spurred great parodies.
And may again.

[David Anthony]

Interesting how many of them were really good.
Also their longevity, considering how short-live poets are, as a whole.

[Christopher ONeill]

Originally Posted by basil ransome-davies

But christ, do you wonder? I believe Colley Cibber & Alfred Austin tie for the role of Most Crap Laureate.

I can only assume that you have never read any Laurence Eusden.

John Dryden remains the only Laureate ever to have been dismissed from the post - now that would be a distinction worth emulating.