Poets' Corner

Memorials in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey

Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there.

The first poet interred in Poets' Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer.^[1] Over the centuries, a tradition has grown up of interring or memorialising people there in recognition of their contribution to British culture. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the honour is awarded to writers.

In 2009 the founders of the Royal Ballet were commemorated in a memorial floor stone and on 25 September 2010 the writer Elizabeth Gaskell was celebrated with the dedication of a panel in the memorial window.^[2] On 6 December 2011, former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes was commemorated with a floor stone.^[3] On 22 November 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, writer C. S. Lewis was commemorated with a memorial floor stone.^[4] The poet Philip Larkin was commemorated with a floor stone dedicated on 2 December 2016.^[5][6][7]

History

Poets' Corner, Kent's 1740 Shakespeare Memorial at centre

The first person interred, Geoffrey Chaucer, owed his burial there in 1400 more to his position as Clerk of Works of the Palace of Westminster than to his fame as a writer. The erection of his magnificent tomb, however, by Nicholas Brigham in 1556 (to where Chaucer's remains were then transferred) and the nearby burial of Edmund Spenser in 1599 started a tradition that is still upheld. The area also houses the tombs of several Canons and Deans of the Abbey, as well as the grave of Thomas Parr who, it is said, died at the age of 152 in 1635 after having seen ten sovereigns on the throne.

Burial or commemoration in the Abbey does not always occur at or soon after the time of death. Lord Byron, for example, whose poetry was admired but who maintained a scandalous lifestyle, died in 1824 but was not given a memorial until 1969. Even William Shakespeare, buried at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, was not honoured with a monument until 1740 when one designed by William Kent was constructed in Poets' Corner (though shortly after his death William Basse had suggested Shakespeare should be buried there.) Samuel Horsley, Dean of Westminster in 1796, was said to have tartly refused the request for actress Kitty Clive to be buried in the Abbey:

if we do not draw some line in this theatrical ambition to mortuary fame, we shall soon make Westminster Abbey little better than a Gothic Green Room!^[8]

Not all poets appreciated memorialisation and Samuel Wesley's epitaph for Samuel Butler, who supposedly died in poverty, continued Butler's satiric tone:

While Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,

No generous patron would a dinner give;

See him, when starv'd to death, and turn'd to dust,

Presented with a monumental bust.

The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,

He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone.

Some of those buried in Poets' Corner also had memorials erected to them over or near their grave, either around the time of their death or later. In some cases, such as Joseph Addison, the burial took place elsewhere in Westminster Abbey, with a memorial later erected in Poets' Corner. In some cases a full burial of a body took place, in other cases the body was cremated and the ashes buried. There are also cases where there was support for a particular individual to be buried in Poets' Corner, but the decision was made to bury them elsewhere in the Abbey, such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Other notable poets and writers, such as Aphra Behn, are buried elsewhere in the Abbey. At least two of the memorials (both to individuals buried in Poets' Corner – Rowe and Gay) were later moved to a location elsewhere in the Abbey due to the discovery of old paintings on the wall behind them.

Memorial types

The memorials can take several forms. Some are stone slabs set in the floor with a name and inscription carved on them, while others are more elaborate and carved stone monuments, or hanging stone tablets, or memorial busts. Some are commemorated in groups, such as the joint memorial for the Brontë sisters (commissioned in 1939, but not unveiled until 1947 due to the war), the sixteen World War I poets inscribed on a stone floor slab and unveiled in 1985, and the four founders of the Royal Ballet, commemorated together in 2009.^[9]

The grave of Ben Jonson is not in Poets' Corner, but is in the north aisle of the nave. It has the inscription "O Rare Ben Johnson" (sic) on the slab above it. It has been suggested that this could be read "Orare Ben Jonson" (pray for Ben Jonson), which would indicate a deathbed return to Catholicism, but the carving shows a distinct space between "O" and "rare".^[10] The fact that he was buried in an upright grave could be an indication of his reduced circumstances at the time of his death ^[11] but it has also been suggested that Jonson asked for a grave exactly 18 inches square from the monarch and received an upright grave to fit in the requested space.^[12] As well as the gravestone in the north aisle of the nave, a wall tablet commemorating Jonson was later erected in Poets' Corner.

As floor and wall space began to run out, the decision was taken to install a stained glass memorial window (unveiled in 1994 in memory of Edward Horton Hubbard), and it is here that new names are added in the form of inscribed panes of glass. There is room for 20 names, and currently (early 2010) there are six names on this window, with a new entry (Elizabeth Gaskell) unveiled on 25 September 2010.^[13]

Burials

Image	Name	Born	Died	Age at death	Details of funeral	Occupation
	Robert Adam	1729	1792	63	...	Architect
	Isaac Barrow	1630	1677	46	...	Mathematician
	Francis Beaumont	1584	1616	31–32	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone.	Playwright
...	John Beaumont	1583	1627	43–44	...	Poet
...	William Benson	unknown	1549	unknown	...	Abbot of Westminster
	Mary Eleanor Bowes	1749	1800	51	Reported by some to have been buried in a court dress, with all the accessories necessary for a Royal audience, plus a small silver trumpet, and by others as in her bridal dress.	Poet and playwright
	Robert Browning	1812	1889	77	Browning's grave immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.	Poet and playwright
	Richard Busby	1606	1695	88–89	...	Headmaster
	William Camden	1551	1623	72	...	Antiquarian and historian
	Thomas Campbell	1777	1844	66	Funeral 3 July 1844.[14]	Poet
	Henry Francis Cary	1772	1844	72	Funeral 14 August 1844.[15]	Author and translator
	Isaac Casaubon	1559	1614	55	...	Classical scholar
	William Chambers	1723	1796	75	...	Architect
	Geoffrey Chaucer	c. 1343	1400	56–57	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone. Memorial was also erected.	Author and poet
	Abraham Cowley	1618	1667	48–49	...	Poet
	Richard Cumberland	1732	1811	79	...	Playwright
	William Davenant	1606	1668	62	...	Poet and playwright
	John Denham	1614 or 1615	1669	63–65	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone.	Poet
	Charles Dickens	1812	1870	58	Dickens's will did not dictate his place of burial, but stipulated that there be no grand funeral ceremony. He was therefore given a secret early-morning funeral in the Abbey, 14 June 1870.[16]	Author
	Michael Drayton	1563	1631	67–68	Died in London. Monument placed by the Countess of Dorset, with memorial lines attributed to Ben Jonson.	Poet
	John Dryden	1631	1700	68	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone. Memorial was also erected.	Poet and playwright
...	Adam Fox	1883	1977	93–94	...	Oxford Professor of Poetry Canon of Westminster Abbey
	David Garrick	1717	1779	61	...	Playwright
	John Gay	1685	1732	47	...	Poet and playwright
	William Gifford	1756	1826	70	Gifford wanted to be buried in South Audley Chapel, "but for the pressing request of his grateful executor [John Ireland, Dean of Westminster], who was anxious that Gifford's remains should be mingled with the great and good in Poets' Corner, Westminster-abbey."[17]	Poet and editor
	George Grote	1794	1871	76	...	Historian
	Richard Hakluyt	c.1552	1616	63–64	...	Author
	George Frideric Handel	1685	1759	74	...	Composer
	Thomas Hardy	1840	1928	87	Hardy's funeral, on 16 January 1928, proved a controversial occasion because Hardy himself had wished to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. His executor Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, however, insisted that he be placed in the Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in the Abbey.	Author and poet
	Henry Irving	1838	1905	67	...	Actor
	Dr Samuel Johnson	1709	1784	75	...	Author, poet and lexicographer
	Rudyard Kipling	1865	1936	70	...	Author and poet
...	Nicholas Litlington	before 1315	1386	70+	...	Abbot of Westminster
	Thomas Macaulay	1800	1859	59	Public funeral, 9 January 1860.[18]	Poet and historian
	James Macpherson	1736	1796	59	...	Author and poet
	John Masefield	1878	1967	88	According to his wishes, was cremated and his ashes placed in Poets’ Corner.	Poet and author
...	Robert Moray	1608/9	1673	63–65	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone.	Statesman and natural philosopher
	Gilbert Murray	1866	1957	91	...	Scholar and translator
	Laurence Olivier	1907	1989	82	...	Actor
	Old Tom Parr	1483	1635	152	...	Supposedly long-lived Englishman
	Matthew Prior	1664	1721	57	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone. Memorial was also erected.	Poet and diplomat
	Nicholas Rowe	1674	1718	44	...	Playwright and poet
	Charles de Saint-Évremond	1610	1703	93	Grave is unmarked. Name is inscribed on the Cowley gravestone. Memorial was also erected.	Essayist and literary critic
	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	1751	1816	64	...	Playwright and poet
	Robert South	1634	1716	81	...	Theologian and poet
	Edmund Spenser	c. 1552	1599	46–47	...	Poet
...	Robert Stapylton	c.1607	1669	61–62	...	Playwright
...	Mary Steele	1678	1718	40	...	Letter writer
	Alfred Tennyson	1809	1892	83	Large public funeral, 12 October 1892.[19] In 1893 the government formally requested there be a bust of Tennyson in Poets Corner. The businessman-botanist Charles Jenner offered Thomas Woolner's 1857 bust of Tennyson to the Abbey, and it was placed near Tennyson's gravestone, by moving a tablet to Christopher Anstey. There was no formal unveiling ceremony.[20]	Poet
	Connop Thirlwall	1797	1875	78	...	Bishop and historian
...	Thomas Triplet	1602	1670	68	...	Prebendary
...	Owen Tudor	1429	1501	71–72	...	Monk of Westminster
	Eva Marie Veigel	1724	1822	98	...	Dancer

Memorials

Image	Name	Born	Died	Age at death	Year commemorated	Details of memorial	Occupation
	Joseph Addison	1672	1719	47	1809	Statue	Poet and Essayist
	Christopher Anstey	1724	1805	80	1807	Stone tablet	Poet and author
	Matthew Arnold	1822	1888	65	1989	Memorial bust & Mural tablet	Poet
	Peggy Ashcroft	1907	1991	83	2005	Floor stone	Actress
	W. H. Auden	1907	1973	66	1974	Floor stone	Poet
	Jane Austen	1775	1817	41	1967	Wall tablet	Author
	John Betjeman	1906	1984	77	1996	Floor stone	Poet and author
	William Blake	1757	1827	69	1957	Memorial bust	Poet and artist
...	Barton Booth	1681	1733	51–52	1772	Monument	Actor
	Charlotte Brontë	1816	1855	38	1947	Memorial tablet	Author
	Anne Brontë	1820	1849	29	1947	Memorial tablet	Author
	Emily Brontë	1818	1848	30	1947	Memorial tablet	Author
	Elizabeth Barrett Browning	1806	1861	55	1906	Floor stone	Poet
	Fanny Burney	1752	1840	87	2002	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Author and playwright
	Robert Burns	1759	1796	37	1885	Memorial bust by John Steell. Unveiled 7 March 1885 by the Earl of Rosebery.[21]	Poet
	Samuel Butler	1612	1680	68	1721	Memorial bust	Poet
	Lord Byron	1788	1824	36	1969	Floor stone	Poet
	Cædmon	fl.657	fl.680	unknown	1966	Floor stone	Poet
	John Campbell	1678	1743	64	1749	Monument	Soldier and nobleman
	Lewis Carroll	1832	1898	65	1982	Floor stone	Author
	John Clare	1793	1864	70	1989	Floor stone	Poet
	Samuel Taylor Coleridge	1772	1834	61	1885	Memorial bust	Poet
	George Eliot	1819	1880	61	1980	Floor stone	Author
	T. S. Eliot	1888	1965	76	1967	Floor stone	Poet and playwright
	David Frost	1939	2013	74	2014	Floor stone[22]	Journalist, comedian, writer and media personality
	Elizabeth Gaskell	1810	1865	55	2010	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Novelist
	Oliver Goldsmith	1728	1774	45	1776	Memorial tablet and bust	Poet and playwright
	Adam Lindsay Gordon	1833	1870	36	1934	Memorial bust	Poet
...	John Ernest Grabe	1666	1711	44–45	1727	Monument	Priest and theologian
	Thomas Gray	1716	1771	54	1778	Monument	Poet and historian
	Stephen Hales	1677	1761	83	1761	Monument	Priest and scientist
	Robert Herrick	1591	1674	83	1994	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Poet
	Gerard Manley Hopkins	1844	1889	44	1975	Floor stone	Poet
	A. E. Housman	1859	1936	77	1996	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Poet
	Ted Hughes	1930	1998	68	2011	Floor stone at the foot of that for T. S. Eliot, one of his main influences	Poet
	Henry James	1843	1916	72	1976	Floor stone	Author
	Ben Jonson	1572	1637	65	1723	Wall tablet	Playwright and poet
	John Keats	1795	1821	25	1954	Mural tablet	Poet
	John Keble	1792	1866	73	1873	Bust	Poet
...	Philip Larkin	1922	1985	63	2016	Floor stone. The stone was inscribed with the final two lines from "An Arundel Tomb": Our almost-instinct almost true: What will survive of us is love.[7]	Poet and novelist
	D. H. Lawrence	1885	1930	44	1985	Floor stone	Author and poet
	Edward Lear	1812	1888	75	1988	Floor stone	Author and poet
...	C. S. Lewis	1898	1963	64	2013	Floor stone. The dedication service, at noon on 22 November 2013, included a reading from The Last Battle by Douglas Gresham, younger stepson of Lewis. Flowers were laid by Walter Hooper, trustee and literary advisor to the Lewis Estate. An address was delivered by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The floor stone inscription is a quotation from an address by Lewis: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else."[23]	Author
	Jenny Lind	1820	1887	67	1894	Wall tablet. "A medallion portrait of the famous singer – the last work of the late Mr Birch – has been placed in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, and was yesterday unveiled by the Princess Christian." [24]	Opera singer
	Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	1807	1882	75	1884	Memorial bust by Thomas Brock, unveiled 1 March 1884.[25]	Poet
	F. W. Maitland	1850	1906	56	2001	Floor stone	Historian
	Christopher Marlowe	1564	1593	29	2002	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Playwright and poet
	William Mason	1724	1797	72–73	1799	Monument	Poet
...	Thomas May	1595	1650	54–56	1880	Wall stone	Poet and playwright
	John Milton	1608	1674	65	1737	Monument	Poet and author
	John Philips	1676	1709	32	1710	Monument	Poet
	Alexander Pope	1688	1744	56	1994	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Poet
	John Pringle	1707	1782	74	...	Monument	Military physician
	Hannah Pritchard	1711	1768	56–57	...	Monument. Later moved to the triforium.	Actress
	John Ruskin	1819	1900	80	1902	Portrait roundel in bronze by Onslow Ford. Unveiled 8 February 1902, after a controversy over whether Ruskin felt monuments like this wasted money and disfigured a building's architectural unity.[26]	Poet and art critic
	Walter Scott	1771	1832	61	1897	Bust by the Scottish sculptor John Hutchison, "a beautifully executed copy of the famous Chantrey bust at Abbotsford".[27]	Author and poet
	Thomas Shadwell	c.1642	1692	~50	c.1700	Monument	Poet and playwright
	William Shakespeare	1564	1616	52	1740	Monument	Playwright and poet
	Granville Sharp	1735	1813	77	1816	Monument	Slavery abolitionist
	Percy Bysshe Shelley	1792	1822	29	1954	Mural tablet	Poet
	Robert Southey	1774	1843	68	1845	Monument	Poet
	William Makepeace Thackeray	1811	1863	52	1865	Bust	Author
	James Thomson	1700	1748	47	1762	Monument	Poet and playwright
	Dylan Thomas	1914	1953	39	1982	Floor stone	Poet and author
	Anthony Trollope	1815	1882	67	1993	Floor stone	Author
...	William Vincent	1739	1815	76	c.1815[28] 1	Monument	Dean of Westminster
	Oscar Wilde	1854	1900	46	1995	Panel on Hubbard memorial window	Playwright and author
	William Wordsworth	1770	1850	80	1854	Monument	Poet
	James Wyatt	1746	1813	67	...	Monument	Architect

World War I poets

The memorial in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, to 16 Great War poets is a slate stone slab with the names of the poets inscribed on it. It was unveiled on 11 November 1985, the 67th anniversary of the Armistice. An additional inscription quotes Owen's "Preface":^[29]

Image	Poet	Born	Died	Age when war started [30]	Notes on war service	Notes on poetry
	Richard Aldington	1892	1962	22	Enlisted 1916 Commissioned 1917 Second Lieutenant Royal Sussex Regiment	...
	Laurence Binyon	1869	1943	44	Volunteered in 1915 and 1916 Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois British hospital for French soldiers	...
	Edmund Blunden	1896	1974	17	Commissioned August 1915 Second Lieutenant Royal Sussex Regiment	...
	Rupert Brooke †	1887	1915	27	Commissioned August 1914 Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve	...
...	Wilfrid Gibson	1878	1962	35	Rejected several times Enlisted October 1917 Army Service Corps (Motor Transport) Never saw active service	...
...	Robert Graves	1895	1985	19	Commissioned 1914 Royal Welch Fusiliers	...
	Julian Grenfell †	1888	1915	26	Commissioned 1910 Captain (at time of death) Royal Dragoons	...
...	Ivor Gurney	1890	1937	23	Private Gloucestershire Regiment	...
...	David Jones	1895	1974	18	Royal Welch Fusiliers	...
	Robert Nichols	1893	1944	20	Commissioned 1914 Royal Artillery	...
	Wilfred Owen †	1893	1918	21	Enlisted 1915 Commissioned June 1916 Second Lieutenant Manchester Regiment	...
	Herbert Read	1893	1968	20	Captain Green Howards	...
	Isaac Rosenberg †	1890	1918	23	Enlisted October 1915 12th Suffolk Folk Regiment King's Own Royal Lancaster	...
	Siegfried Sassoon	1886	1967	27	Enlisted 1914 Commissioned May 1915 Captain (at end of war) Royal Welch Fusiliers	...
	Charles Sorley †	1895	1915	19	Enlisted 1914 Captain (at time of death) Suffolk Regiment	...
	Edward Thomas †	1878	1917	36	Enlisted July 1915 Artists Rifles Commissioned November 1916 Royal Garrison Artillery	...

Royal Ballet

The stone slab floor memorial to the four founders of the Royal Ballet was dedicated on 17 November 2009.

Image	Name	Born	Died	Age at death	Notes on Royal Ballet role
	Ninette de Valois	1898	2001	102	...
...	Frederick Ashton	1904	1988	84	...
	Constant Lambert	1905	1951	45	...
	Margot Fonteyn	1919	1991	71	...

Elsewhere in the Abbey

Poets and writers commemorated elsewhere in Westminster Abbey, but not in Poets' Corner proper.^[31][32]

Image	Name	Born	Died	Age at death	Year commemorated	Details of memorial	Notes on artistic career
...	Robert Ayton	1570	1638	67–68		Bust	Poet
	Aphra Behn	1640	1689	48		Gravestone	Author and playwright
	Edward Bulwer-Lytton	1803	1873	69		Gravestone	Author and poet
	John Bunyan	1628	1688	59	1912	Memorial window	Author
	Margaret Cavendish	1623	1673	69–70		Monument	Author and poet
	William Cavendish	1592	1676	84		Monument	Playwright and poet
	William Congreve	1670	1729	58	c.1730	Monument	Playwright and poet
	Noël Coward	1899	1973	73	1984	Floor stone	Playwright and composer
	William Cowper	1731	1800	68	1876	Memorial window	Poet and hymnodist
	Wentworth Dillon	1637	1685	47–48		Grave not marked	Poet
	Benjamin Disraeli	1804	1881	76	1884	Statue	Author
	George Herbert	1593	1633	39	1876	Memorial window	Poet and orator
	Robert Howard	1626	1698	72			Playwright
	Charles Kingsley	1819	1875	55	1875	Bust	Author
	James R. Lowell	1819	1891	72		Tablet and window	Poet
	F. D. Maurice	1805	1872	66	1932	Bust	Author
	Anne Oldfield	1683	1730	47		Gravestone	Actress
	Henry Spelman	c.1564	1641	76–77		Gravestone	Antiquarian
	Arthur P. Stanley	1815	1881	65	1884	Tomb and effigy	Author
	Ralph Vaughan Williams	1872	1958	86	1958	Floor stone	Composer
	Isaac Watts	1674	1748	74	1779	Monument	Hymnodist

See also

Information about the last resting places of other famous poets can be found at:

• Find a Grave

Poets' Corner is also the title of a play by James Huntrods,^[33] and The Poets' Corner was a book of caricatures of famous poets by Max Beerbohm published in 1904.

Notes and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to People buried in Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey
Deans	Early modern William Benson Richard Cox Hugh Weston William Bill Gabriel Goodman Lancelot Andrewes Richard Neile George Montaigne Robert Tounson John Williams Richard Steward John Earle John Dolben Thomas Sprat Francis Atterbury Samuel Bradford Joseph Wilcocks Zachary Pearce John Thomas Samuel Horsley Late modern William Vincent John Ireland Thomas Turton Samuel Wilberforce William Buckland Richard Chenevix Trench Arthur Stanley George Bradley Armitage Robinson Herbert Ryle William Foxley Norris Paul de Labilliere Alan Don Eric Abbott Edward Carpenter Michael Mayne Wesley Carr John Hall
Canons (current)	Vernon White (Canon Theologian) David Stanton (Canon Treasurer & Almoner) Jane Sinclair (Rector of St Margaret's) Anthony Ball (Canon Steward) vacant roles: Sub-Dean; Archdeacon Chris Stoltz (Minor Canon & Precentor) Mark Birch (Minor Canon & Chaplain) Paul Arbuthnot (Minor Canon & Sacrist)
Coronation of the British monarch Liber Regalis Edward the Confessor (patron saint) Burials and Memorials Poets' Corner St Margaret's, Westminster Henry Yevele (architect) Diocese of Westminster (1540–1550) Westminster Abbey Muniments Westminster Abbey Museum Westminster School Westminster Abbey Choir School Dean's Yard Jerusalem Chamber
Category Commons

Coordinates: 51°29′57″N 0°7′38.50″W / 51.49917°N 0.1273611°W / 51.49917; -0.1273611