The British poet laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom on the advice of the prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expe
John Dryden, the first poet laureate, (1667-1689)
John Dryden, Poet and Playwright
Thomas Shadwell from NPG
Nicholas Rowe from NPG
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson was an English poet. He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambrid
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
…to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official laureate was John Dryden, appointed in 1668 by Charles II. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the…
Tennyson in the late 1860s
An illustration by William Edward Frank Britten showing Somersby Rectory, where Tennyson was raised and began writing
Statue of Lord Tennyson in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge
John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott, 1888 (Tate Britain, London)