The post of Poet Laureate has existed in Britain since the 1600s and has included a number of household names. Whilst glancing through the list of previous holders of the honour, however, there were (to me at least) some unknown figures.

Famous, or perhaps infamous, for supposedly being the least talented and least read of Poet Laureates is Alfred Austin, who replaced the much more highly-regarded Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Born in Leeds in 1835, Austin was a Roman Catholic turned agnostic, who also had an interest in politics. His appointment was unpopular and although he wrote some poems of a patriotic nature, which was appropriate to his role as Poet Laureate, his poems have generally been considered to be of little importance.

The following extracts, however, from a verse entitled, Is Life Worth Living, seem to me to be refreshingly readable and direct and to have a resonance that can be appreciated long after his death in 1913. I have taken the beginning and end of the poem, as they are, for me, the best bits!

Is life worth living? Yes, so long
As there is wrong to right,
Wail of the weak against the strong,
Or tyranny to fight.

It ends:

While there is one untrodden tract
For Intellect or Will,
And men are free to think and act
Life is worth living still.

To go back further to the early days of the post, there was Nahum Tate. An Irishman, who lived from 1652 until 1715 and who became Poet Laureate in 1692, Tate is best known for a play, not a poem. His History of King Lear, a so-called “tragicomedy” based on Shakespeare’s famous play, was popular well into the Victorian era. He also wrote some original plays, the libretto (the words) of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas and some lines that will be familiar to any fan of Christmas carols: the words of While Shepherds Watched…

What appears to be his best known poem, from 1700, is a light-hearted verse on the drink of tea, entitled Panacea: a poem upon tea in which he claims tea can both calm

The Calentures of Youth’s fermenting Rage,
And Animate the freezing Veins of Age.

Incidentally, a “calenture” is a tropical fever.

The final mention for relative obscurity goes to the unusually named Colley Cibber, 1671-1757. Like Mr Tate, he was also a writer of plays, although Cibber was an actor too and a theatre manager whose stage career began at the Drury Lane theatre in London. He mostly wrote comedies but also, again like Tate, adapted Shakespeare. His final performance was in 1745 when he appeared in his own version of Shakespeare’s King John.

Like Alfred Austin, he became involved in politics after the death of Queen Anne, which may have helped him gain the influence to be appointed as Poet Laureate.

In his poem The Blind Boy, Cibber imagines himself as the unsighted subject of the piece, communicating how this character finds it impossible to comprehend the concept of light. The poem ends on a note of resigned optimism.

Then let not what I cannot have
My cheer of mind destroy.
Whilst thus I sing, I am a king,
Although a poor blind boy.