The Poet Laureates Of England

There are some offices of State which seem to carry a burden of culture that quite often humbles or crushes the holder. Being appointed a modern Poet Laureate has often been a difficult one. But the office itself goes back many centuries – informally to the time of Chaucer in 1389 and followed thereafter by a number of ‘volunteer laureates’. It was formally assigned to Ben Jonson in 1617 and, as a Royal office by letters patent in 1670 to John Drydon. It is a rich, rewarding history that bursts