A Net-annotated list of all the poets who have served the Library of Congress as Consultant (the old title) or Poet Laureate Consultant (the new title). Biographies & general reference sites are linked to the poets’ names -- many of them pages from the Academy of American Poets’ Find a Poet archive, a growing & invaluable resource. If there is no general information site about the poet, we have searched the Net for sample poems or other writings or recordings & listed those below the poet’s name.

• Joseph Auslander 1937-41
  His sonnet, “To My Despoiler”
  
  
• Allen Tate 1943-44
  His essay on writing poetry, “Narcissus As Narcissus”
  
  
• Robert Penn Warren 1944-45
  
  
• Louise Bogan 1945-46
  
  
• Karl Shapiro 1946-47
  
  
• Robert Lowell 1947-48
  
  
• Leonie Adams 1948-49
  
  
• Elizabeth Bishop 1949-50
  
  
• Conrad Aiken 1950-52 (First to serve two terms)
  
  
• William Carlos Williams
  Appointed to serve two terms in 1952 but did not serve -- for more on this & other Laureate controversies see the history in Jacket magazine
  
  
• Randall Jarrell 1957-58
  
  
• Robert Frost 1958-59
  
  
• Richard Eberhart 1959-61
  
  
• Louis Untermeyer 1961-63
  His poems “Prayer,” “Summons” & “On the Birth of a Child” at Bartleby
  “Reveille” & 4 other poems at Daypoems
  
  
• Howard Nemerov 1963-64
  
  
• Reed Whittemore 1964-65
  
  
• Stephen Spender 1965-66
  
  
• James Dickey 1966-68
  
  
• William Jay Smith 1968-70
  His “Epigrams”
  
  
• William Stafford 1970-71
  
  
• Josephine Jacobsen 1971-73
  Her letter to William Meredith
  
  
• Daniel Hoffman 1973-74
  
  
• Stanley Kunitz 1974-76
  
  
• Robert Hayden 1976-78
  
  
• William Meredith 1978-80
  
  
• Maxine Kumin 1981-82
  
  
• Anthony Hecht 1982-84
  
  
• Robert Fitzgerald 1984-85 (Appointed and served in a health-limited capacity, but did not come to the Library of Congress)
  
  
• Reed Whittemore 1984-85 (Interim Consultant in Poetry)
  
  
• Gwendolyn Brooks 1985-86
  
  
• Robert Penn Warren 1986-87 (First to be designated Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry)
  
  
• Richard Wilbur 1987-88
  
  
• Howard Nemerov 1988-90
  
  
• Mark Strand 1990-91
  Our 2000 feature article on him, “Stranded: Poet Mark Strand Preaches Political Indifference at UCI”
  
  
• Joseph Brodsky 1991-92
  Our 1997 feature article on him, “The Poet Is Gone, The Poems Live On”
  
  
• Mona Van Duyn 1992-93
  
  
• Rita Dove 1993-95
  A special Web edition of her poem “Lady Freedom Among Us”
  
  
• Robert Hass 1995-97
  Brighde Mullins’ introduction to his reading at DIA Center for the Arts
  
  
• Robert Pinsky 1997-2000
  His Favorite Poem Project
  Our review of his book, The Sounds of Poetry
  
  
• Stanley Kunitz 2000-2001
  Our collection of Kunitz quotes & links when he was appointed Laureate
  
  
• Billy Collins 2001-2003
  His Poetry 180 project to bring poetry into American high schools
  Our choice of two of his readings as Poetry MP3 Picks in honor of his laureateship
  
  
• Louise Glück 2003-2004
  Our links & comments when she was named Laureate

---

See the most recent Library of Congress press release (on Louise Glück’s appointment) & the 1999 press release (when Robert Pinsky was reappointed to an unprecedented third term as Poet Laureate) for fact sheets & brief history of the U.S. Poet Laureate position.

---

Previous Feature Articles
By Date | By Topic

---

New posts to the Poetry forums:

Nomination of "Her Bracelet"Her BraceletWhy I'm leaving the human race

---

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Name	Email

---