Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.

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 and general reference pages are linked to the poets’ names. If there is no general information page about the poet, we have searched the Net for sample poems or other writings or recordings and listed those below the poet’s name. We have created our own biographical references for the recent Poets Laureate.

• 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 and other Laureate controversies see the history in Jacket magazine
   
• Randall Jarrell 1957-58
   
• Robert Frost 1958-59
   
• Richard Eberhart 1959-61
  “A Student’s Memories of Richard Eberhart,” by David Graham
   
• Louis Untermeyer 1961-63
  His poems “Prayer,” “Summons” and “On the Birth of a Child” at Bartleby
  “Reveille” and four 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
   
• 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
   
• 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
  Poems, translations, bibliography and articles about Hass’ work at the Poetry Foundation
   
• Robert Pinsky 1997-2000​
  His Favorite Poem Project
   
• Stanley Kunitz 2000-2001​
   
• Billy Collins 2001-2003
  His Poetry 180 project to bring poetry into American high schools
   
• Louise Glück 2003-2004
   
• Ted Kooser 2004-2005
  Excerpt from his book, The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (from Google Books)
   
• Donald Hall 2006-2007
  “Poetry Across the Atlantic,” Library of Congress Webcast of a historic joint reading with U.S. Poet Laureate Hall and UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion reading their own and their countrymen(women)’s poems
   
• Charles Simic 2007-2008
   
• Kay Ryan 2008-2010
  Kay Ryan poems, audio readings and podcasts at the Poetry Foundation
   
• W.S. Merwin 2010-2011
   
• Philip Levine 2011-2012
   
• Natasha Trethewey 2012-