The Laureate Roles: Three Poets and a Professor

Abstract

This juxtaposes the notion of ‘national poet’ which emerged during the Romantic era with the contemporary offices of poet laureate which obtain in post-devolution Britain and Ireland. Today, the idea of ‘national poet’ in the UK encompasses, in tandem with figures from the past, the elected, time-bound, and bureaucratically configured offices of Poet Laureate, Ireland Chair of Poetry, Scots Makar, and National Poet of Wales. The chapter is organised under subheadings of each of these roles. Each section offers an overview of the offices themselves, their formation and inter-relationship. It attends to the way the traditional but unstated ‘English’ nature of the Poet Laureate is affected by the Irish and devolved roles. It gives an account of how Clarke, Duffy, Lochhead and Meehan approached their tenures. It pays careful attention to the anomalous position of Ireland Professor of Poetry which is an academic post.