The Laureates: Poetry and Public Office (1668–2029) explores the laureateship from the seventeenth century to the present day, touching upon well-known figures such as John Dryden, William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, Ted Hughes, and Carol Ann Duffy, as well as poets who have long eluded scholarly attention, including William Whitehead, Henry James Pye, and John Masefield. The volume offers a critical reassessment of an often-overlooked institution, and asks how the office was shaped by those who have held the title, and how it, in turn, shaped their poetry. This fascinating survey of the changing ideas of the laureateship also tracks shifting conceptualisations of empire, monarchy and nation, as well as a marked consistency in office holders’ engagement with the preoccupations of the day, from war to social reform and from environmental concerns to the digital age and the pandemic.
