Apr

11

Rest On Your Laureates (Part 2)

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 11, 2008 |

Continuing the exploration of the history of the Poet Laureate, the United States has its own version of the post. Originally the position that became Poet Laureate of the United States was called Consultant In Poetry To The Library of Congress. It was created in 1937 with the appointment of poet Joseph Auslander, who remained in the position until 1941, serving two consecutive two-year terms. Auslander was followed by Fugitives Allen Tatbrodsky.jpge and Robert Penn Warren, and then in 1945 Louise Bogan became the first woman to serve. Several major leaguers in American poetry have held the position, including Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Dickey. William Carlos Williams was appointed in 1952 but was a victim of McCarthyism; the post remained vacant until 1956 when Randall Jarrell took over. In 1986, with the re-appointment of Robert Penn Warren the name of the position was changed to Poet Laureate. Joseph Brodsky, who served from 1991 to 1992, was the first (and so far only) émigré Poet Laureate, having come to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1972. Brodsky tried to make the position more public than his predecessors, and promoted the idea of making poetry more widely available, suggesting that it should be put in buses, supermarkets, hotels, and other places where it would reach a wider audience. Billy Collins, who served from 2001-2003, created Poetry 180, a program of daily poems to be read to (or read by) high school students the 180 days of the school year. The current Poet Laureate of the United States is Charles Simic.

The position of Poet Laureate isn’t just limited to the whole country, though; several donaldhall.jpgstates have a Poet Laureate. Currently Arizona, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are the only states that don’t have Poets Laureate. Donald Hall, who served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2006-2007, first served as Poet Laureate of New Hampshire from 1984-1989.

There’s also at least one blog that’s appointed previous Poets Laureate of the Blogosphere and is looking for nominations for 2008.

Countries other than Great Britain and the United States also have Poets Laureate. In 2002 Canada appointed its own Poet Laureate, George Bowering. Like the United States their poets serve two-year terms, and John Steffler currently holds the position.

And sometimes the term just gets slapped on people whose works really capture something. Charles Bukowski has been called “Poet Laureate of Skid Row”, while Arthur C. Clarke was labeled “poet laureate of the space age” in an obituary by the Boston Globe.


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