Talk:Poet laureate

message: I copied the following comment from Nunh-huh from my User Talk page, for the attention of other contributors to this article:
I think it's rather a bad idea to suggest (as I think having a "successor box" on Chaucer does) that "Poet Laureate" was established as a successible office (rather than just something the king's versifiers might occasionally be called) in Chaucer's time. I think you should reconsider, and start these boxes only after the office had clearly been established as such (say after Charles I). - Nunh-huh 21:48, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with Nunh-huh.  If there are no objections, I shall leave Ben Jonson's predecessor box empty or write "no official predecessor".  Earlier poets (and there are only a handful) will have some kind of standardised comment naming the nearest earlier and later laureate-equivalents. -- Heron 08:12, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds good to me. Now if there were only some NPOV way to say that poems produced as Poet Laureate are nearly always dreadful...far worse than the rest of a poet's output. - Nunh-huh 00:00, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: True, although some of our articles on the poets do mention the poor quality of their laureate output.  I decided to start with Samuel Daniel, rather than Ben Jonson, as the first official laureate, although there seems to be a case for including Spenser.  Before him, the title seems to have been intermittent. -- Heron 13:00, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Successor box 

message: The following were my remarks in a recent discussion at Talk:Scottish literature. I think they are more on topic here. Also posted at National poet. 
There are two concepts here, and this is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary. Our articles should generally be about a single concept; the rest is a matter of disambiguation. Yes, our article national poet should mention—by way of disambiguation—that the term can also mean something akin to poet laureate. But the article should be about people like Burns or Eminescu, and poet laureate should be about people who hold national office as a poet, regardless of the title used in a particular country. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:43, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  ''National poet'' and ''poet laureate'' 

message: Edit This article continually talks about the "English" poet laureate: technically I think you'll find the post applies to Britain as a whole. England and Britain are not synonyms. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.103.120.244 (talk) 09:03, 13 May 2006
This article isn't supposed to talk only about the brittish poet laureate. Infact, it's omitting most of the value of the term. I'd say it needs an overhaul Reynaert-ad 14:34, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Moved from main page 

message: FWIW, a small town probably within the Chicago metro area (but in Michigan) has one.--Jerzy•t 18:00, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Another example 

message: It strikes me as not relevant to the article that Ted Hughes was the widower of Sylvia Plath.  That can be covered fully in his article. -- Beardo 01:20, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ted Hughes 

message: What is the citation for claiming that Maya Angelou was poet laureate of the United States? She spoke at a presidential inauguration (Clinton's) but I am pretty certain she was never poet laureate. Certain enough that I will remove this, pending citation. - Jmabel | Talk 04:16, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You are definitely correct and it should remain removed - the official list of poet laureates is on the Library of Congress's web site and does not include her. Sam 16:23, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Maya Angelou?? 

message: Shadwell is referred to in the section in the "History" section as being the originator of the Birthday  and commemorative poems, but his name and date of his being appointed laureate are missing from the list of laureates. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Shadwell
80.216.67.89 17:43, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Thomas Shadwell 

message: I feel that the term should be 'poet laureate', uncapitalized, as with words such as 'king' and 'president' unless used as an honorific such as 'Poet Laureate Smith' or 'President Bush'. The article's header should thus be 'Poet laureate'. Alpheus (talk) 21:15, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I came to this talk page to raise nearly the same question. I notice that in the body of the article, "poet laureate" is not capitalized, and I agree with this form. However, in order to be consistent, I think we ought indeed to change the article's title to "Poet laureate." If the entire term needn't be capitalized, there's no reason to break with the standard practice of capitalizing only proper nouns and the first word of a title. Thoughts? Armadillopteryxtalk 09:57, 11 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Capitalization 

message: Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth on the refusal of Samuel Russell.  Who was this Samuel Russell?  The internet seems to have never heard of him.  Yet to be offered the post of Poet Laureate he must have been held in high regard in his time.  Where can we find some info about his life and works? --  JackofOz (talk) 09:53, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Rogers, not Russell.  Answered here and corrected here.  --  Jack of Oz  ... speak! ...  23:40, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Samuel Russell

message: Hesiod in his Theogony writes,
:"So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they plucked and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvellous thing, and breathed into me a divine voice to celebrate things that shall be and things there were aforetime;..." (ll. 29-35)
This may be the reference which connects the laurel with poetry. The term poet laureate comes into use at the time of Chaucer and Petrarch and the beginning of Renaissance humanism in the 14th century. --Jbergquist (talk) 11:24, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hesiod and the Muses 

message: I have removed the following section which seems to be unsupported in its entirety.  If someone could provide proof of these claims that would assist but I have been unable to find any at this time.  Indeed the last suggested poet laureate seems very improbable given that the test has only just ended.
 ===Australia=== 
Unlike most English-speaking countries, where the Poet Laureate is a writer of verse, Australia's unique social formation has meant that its Poets Laureate are usually chosen for excellence in sports. Former holders of the title include Don Bradman, Betty Cuthbert and Rod Laver. Shane Gould became Australia's youngest female Poet Laureate after her three gold medals at the Munich Olympics . The current Laureate is Mitchell Johnson, who took 16 wickets in three tests on the current tour of South Africa, and also scored 123 not out in the final test.
--VS talk 04:43, 25 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: It's an absolute load of balderdash.  Someone is either very much mistaken, or is intentionally confusing sporting icons with poets laureate.  Afaik, none of the people named ever wrote a poem in their lives.  Australia does not and has never had a Poet Laureate, although the idea has been occasionally floated.  --  JackofOz (talk) 06:50, 25 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes those were broadly speaking my thoughts also.--VS talk 07:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  Myself,  think y'all have "absolute zero" for a sense of humour. The author gently making fun of Australia for still having too much of a "outback/colony" mentality to have such an artsy fartsy thing as a "poet laureate", but they have celebrated the unique identity of Oz, by drawing our attention to Don Bradman, for instance, being an "artist" with a cricket bat. Pretty funny, if you ask me. I understand that it doesn't make sense in Wiki, but it isn't "balderdash". It is too bad we can't find a way to include it as a humour piece. Our loss, really. I would have appreciated an effort from y'all to "Improve not Revert". You have come off as Philistines, ironically for a poet laureate article. Oh Well. Ten points for the author though. 184.69.174.194 (talk) 08:44, 8 February 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Uncited section removed 

message: "William Auld is sometimes considered the poet laureate of Esperantujo." This seems to be a bit of wishful thinking IMHO. Esperantujo is a metaphore for a certain aspect of the Esperanto movement. It certainly is not an authority to grant a similar title. Considered by whom and when?--77.248.201.177 (talk) 18:31, 10 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dubious 

message: There is no antecedent for the reference to "Davenant" so it doesn't make much sense in context.
93.233.73.153 (talk) 07:59, 8 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Davenant 

message: Is this some not so subtle form of advertising? I don't think NS propaganda is the best example of german poetry. --212.255.19.42 (talk) 20:43, 9 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Since the Nazis controlled everything, it is inevitable that any German poet laureate would be appointed by the Nazis and reflect their views.  The more significant question is whether there was an official national poet and who preceded and succeeded him.  I suspect that the naming of poets laureate for some places in this article is a case of WP:OR.  Peterkingiron (talk) 11:45, 13 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why Nazi Germany? 

message: I don't get the reference to Silvio Berlusconi. There is not poet laureate that I know of in Italy, and if Mr Berlusconi appointed someone for his private delight (thing that I can easily see him doing), this is no public matter.
ClaudioSvaluto  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.153.178.184 (talk) 20:40, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  berlusconi? 

message: I put an "accuracy" tag on this section since it appears to say that Minnesota has had a poet laureate ONLY since 2007 and never had one before.  In the '60s Minnesota had a poet laureate.  At some time after that the position was abolished. Michael Hardy (talk) 18:07, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Minnesota 

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thread_title:  External links modified