Excerpt from The Poets Laureate of England: Their History and Their Odes But while the Laureateship is largely a record of mediocre poetry, and witnesses to the indestructible and bewitching power of flattery, it nevertheless affords many profitable lessons for the student of English literary history. The antiquity and privileges of the office, 'its relations with Royalty and with party politics, and its influence on the fortunes of English poetry are substantial reasons why the history of the Laureateship should receive more attention than it has hitherto done. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.