Sorting Poets Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The first official poet laureate in the UK came when King Charles II created the royal office and appointed John Dryden to the position in 1668. Dryden was dismissed from office in 1689 with the accession of William III and Mary II after Dryden refused to take an oath of allegiance to them. The UK poet laureate became in effect a position for life until in 1999 when the duration was changed to a 10-year term.

In the USA, the equivalent position follows an appointment by the librarian of Congress and is normally for two years. Between 1937 and 1985 the position was known as consultant in poetry. Since 1986 the holder is known as poet laureate consultant in poetry. The US role is essentially about raising awareness of poetry in American society.

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) wrote both poetry and short stories. She was influenced by the poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972) and through her friendship with the poet Robert Lowell (1917-1977). She had her consultant in poetry term from 1949 to 1950, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1956 amongst many other poetry and literature prizes.

A practising physician, William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) was also a poet, associated with modernism and imagism. He was named as Consultant in Poetry in 1952 but was prevented from serving. This was during the McCarthy era and unfounded accusations were made that he was a member of a communist organisation. He was prevented from responding to his critics. He went onto win both the Bollingen Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was consultant in poetry for a year from 1958 when he was in his eighties. His influence on modern poetry was more through his writing style than from the advisory position itself. Perhaps his most famous public moment came in 1961 when reciting "The Gift Outright" at President Kennedy's inauguration, the first poet to make such a reading.

As Consultant in Poetry (1981-1982), Maxine Kumin (1925-2014) started lunchtime poetry workshops for women. Being held in the Poetry Room at the Library of Congress, this tended to be restricted to Washington-area women poets. In resigning from the board of chancellors of the Academy of American Poets along with Carolyn Kizer, she helped encourage the Academy to better represent women and minorities on its board.

In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also the first African American woman to be appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1985-1986). She was noted for her public outreach, a role she had been performing since 1968 as Poet Laureate of Illinois.

Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) was the first foreign-born US poet laureate. Born in Leningrad, he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972. WH Auden and other supporters helped him settle in the US. As US poet laureate (1991-1992), he proposed a national programme of publishing poems in everyday public spaces as a way of providing better access to poetry for all levels of US society. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987.

Born in 1952, the African American poet Rita Dove held the office of US poet laureate from 1993 to 1995, being the youngest at the time to hold the position. Unlike some of the previous incumbents, her Pulitzer Prize for Poetry came before the laureate honour. She also served along with Louise Glück and W. S. Merwin as a special bicentennial consultant in poetry to the Library in Congress from 1999 to 2000. She has been an advocate of writing and of poetry with various organisations over the years.

Robert Hass (born 1941) served as US poet laureate between 1995 and 1997. His term saw him champion literature, poetry and ecological awareness through a cross-country lecturing programme which took him into corporate board rooms and to other such places where poets weren't normally seen. He also wrote a weekly "Poet's Choice" column for "The Washington Post" newspaper between 1997 and 2000. This contained poems written by well-known poets that were relevant to headlines at the time.

The 'Favorite Poem Project' was founded by Robert Pinsky (born 1940) shortly after he became US poet laureate in 1997. His time as US poet laureate lasted until the year 2000. The project invited Americans to share poems and explain why the poems were meaningful to them. Some 18,000 poems were shared in the first year. These were used to produce various collections with DVDs containing readings of these by everyday Americans. There were also dozens of short videos made of such readings, now part of the Library of Congress archive.

During his time as US poet laureate (2001-2003), Billy Collins (born 1941) introduced the 'Poetry 180' programme for high schools and provided the supporting book. "Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry". This contained a poem for each day of the school year. He followed this up by editing a second anthology "180 more: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day".