poet laureate

noun

plural poets laureate or poet laureates

Definition of poet laureate

1 : a poet honored for achievement

2a : a poet appointed for life by an English sovereign as a member of the royal household and formerly expected to compose poems for court and national occasions

b : a poet appointed annually by the U.S. Library of Congress as a consultant and typically involved in the promotion of poetry

3 : one regarded by a country or region as its most eminent or representative poet

Examples of poet laureate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The poet laureate’s charge is to enhance the town’s cultural life, according to a statement posted to the town website. — BostonGlobe.com, "Brookline searches for town’s next poet laureate," 23 Mar. 2021 Amanda Gorman, a youth poet laureate and the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, has been recruited to recite an original piece that honors the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic at next week's Super Bowl LV. — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, "Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman Is Headed for the Super Bowl," 27 Jan. 2021 Even before he was anointed the poet laureate of teen heartache with movies like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, the filmmaker’s internal age hewed closer to that of his high school protagonists. — Keaton Bell, Vogue, "Molly Ringwald Looks Back on Pretty in Pink, 35 Years Later," 3 Mar. 2021 Dartmouth is restricting its event to graduates only as is Smith College, which has announced that Jo Harjo, the 23rd poet laureate of the United States will be its commencement speaker. — Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes, "College Commencement, 2021: The Live, The Virtual, The Drive Through," 25 Feb. 2021 Named the first national youth poet laureate in 2017, Gorman also drew national attention for her recitation at the recent presidential inaugration of Joe Biden. — Tim Bielik, cleveland, "Suzie Dorner, Revere alum and COVID-19 ICU nurse manager at Tampa General Hospital, tosses coin at Super Bowl LV," 8 Feb. 2021 America’s first youth poet laureate most definitely stole the show. — Aparita Bhandari, refinery29.com, "The Best Movies & TV Coming To Netflix Canada This February," 25 Jan. 2021 And last week, San Francisco lost Lawrence Ferlinghetti, our Beat poet laureate. — Kevin Fisher-paulson, San Francisco Chronicle, "Springtime in S.F. brings surprise flowers, hope," 2 Mar. 2021 San Francisco’s first poet laureate in 1998, Ferlinghetti was an advocate of poetry as an oral tradition who read his own work with artful vigor. — Los Angeles Times, "Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and titan of the Beat era, dies at 101," 23 Feb. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'poet laureate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

1 Apr 2021

Cite this Entry

“Poet laureate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poet%20laureate. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

Style: MLA

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