Who Should Have Been Poet Laureate?

Collected and edited by Evan Blackmore

Narrated by Evan Blackmore

In 1892, Alfred Tennyson, the official Poet Laureate of Great Britain, died. According to custom, a new Laureate now had to be chosen by the Prime Minister. But on this occasion, uniquely, there was a problem. Many different candidates for the position were suggested, but for several years, none were chosen. In this recording, we listen to selected poems by Tennyson himself and by ten writers nominated to succeed him: A. C. Swinburne, William Morris, John Ruskin, Austin Dobson, Rudyard Kipling, Alice Meynell, Edwin Arnold, Lewis Morris, Alfred Austin, and Robert Bridges. If you had been Prime Minister, whom would you have chosen?

Audible/Amazon

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