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Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom/archive1

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was promoted by Giants2008 18:17, 4 October 2015 [1].

Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom edit

Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): SchroCat (talk) 15:21, 2 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The post of Poet laureate has officially been in existence since 1668 and the appointment of John Dryden, although it had its origin in 1616 when the writer Ben Jonson was granted a royal pension. The last couple of appointees have been on fixed ten-year terms, but prior to that it was a lifetime appointment, with the exception of Dryden, who was sacked on religious grounds. This has had a recent re-write to bring it into line of MoS requirements. Any and all comments are welcome. – SchroCat (talk) 15:21, 2 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comments:
    • I am strongly against including birth/death ranges in lists like this, as it adds nothing to the list itself.
      • I think it does add something, but I take your point. I'll leave it in there for the moment, but should others agree that the information is pointless, I'll remove it. Does that sound OK? - SchroCat (talk) 08:27, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    • Is it possible to get specific dates of laureateship? At least for the modern ones, with better recordkeeping?
      • Yes, I don't see why not - let me see what can be added. - SchroCat (talk) 08:27, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
      • Now added. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 14:09, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    • Shouldn't it simply be "Victoria" rather than "Queen Victoria"?
  • The list seems generally sound, though perhaps a bit sparse... But I struggle to think of additional data to add to it. --Golbez (talk) 08:28, 5 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    • I know what you mean on the sparseness! I mulled over a few extra bits, but they really were pointless and would only have been included to pad out the table. Thanks for your thoughts. - SchroCat (talk) 08:27, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Rodw

In the "background section:

  • Will all readers understand "purview" - it would consider the award of the post to be Royal Patronage.
  • I had to read the sentence "Since 1790, and the appointment of Henry James Pye, the Prime Minister has recommended the candidate to appoint" three times to make sense of it.
  • In one paragraph we have "Department for Culture, Media and Sport" and in the next "Department of Culture" I get that they are referring to the same department but non UK readers may not.

In the list:

  • If you sort by Birth and death date column, Thomas Shadwell comes out of sequence I think because of the "c." in the birth date.
  • Would it be possible to include a photo of Cecil Day-Lewis rather than the blue plaque or is this a "fair use" issue?
  • Sadly (and annoyingly) it's a fair use thing, so the plaque is the best we can do, unfortunately. – SchroCat (talk) 21:49, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • The only data I can think of to add is a sortable list of their length of tenure in the post.
  • Good idea: I'll add that in the morning. – SchroCat (talk) 21:49, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hope these are helpful.— Rod talk 19:27, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Many thanks Rod! All much appreciated; I've tweaked it all per your recommendations, bar the last two - one of which I'll do shortly. Cheers – SchroCat (talk) 21:49, 10 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • All now done. Cheers Rod. - SchroCat (talk) 08:52, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the amendments. I can now support this as meeting the criteria.— Rod talk 18:29, 11 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Many thanks, Rod, for your time and thoughts here. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 08:43, 12 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Support Excellent list. Just one thing:

"Dryden's successor, Thomas Shadwell, was appointed for life. He introduced the custom of producing poems for the new year and the monarch's birthday, which became one of the key duties of the position." -is it worth mentioning a date of when appointed or introduced?♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:07, 12 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Many thanks Doc - your thoughts and comments are much appreciated. I've added the date of Shadwell's appointment in the text as suggested. Cheers – SchroCat (talk) 06:40, 13 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Support – This is what we used to call in Latin lessons, fifty years ago, a "question expecting the answer no", but are there any poems by any of the Laureates written in their official capacity that are good enough, or well enough known, to be mentioned in the lead? That would be the only thing I could think to add to this comprehensive and classily presented page. Tim riley talk 14:02, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Afterthought (sorry) – perhaps swapping the last two sentences of the first para would remove any momentary thought that Ms Duffy only got the post because Messrs Gray, Rogers and Scott turned it down. Tim riley talk 14:06, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Done the second point; I think there may well be something I could add on this point.
Many thanks for your thoughts on this, and I'll address your first point once I get back to the sources. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 14:12, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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