On this day...

Harvard College is named after clergyman John Harvard in 1639. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the college is Harvard University's oldest school, and is run by the Faculty of Arts and Science. As such, the institution boasts a number of famous literary alumni. William S. Burroughs, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, Norman Mailer, Erich Segal, Michael Crichton and John Updike all received their education at the esteemed college and, alongside several Presidents, have contributed much to its reputation.

Harvard is also famous for its well known publications. The 'Harvard Advocate' is the oldest continuously published college literary magazine, and the 'Harvard International Review', is one of the most widely-distributed undergraduate journals in the world with 35,000 readers in more than 70 countries.

Don Paterson strikes gold...

Scottish poet Don Paterson has become the latest recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Created in 1933 by King George V, the Medal is awarded annually by the monarch for a book of verse publihsed in the Commonwealth. Traditionally the award is announced on Shakespeare's supposed birthday, April 23rd; however, this year the poet was named in the 2010 New Year's Honour List. Paterson, who recently won the £10,000 Forward Poetry Prize in October, was awarded the honour for his poetry anthology 'Rain'. Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy chaired the judging panel, and said Paterson's work was 'poetry of bravery and conviction...acutely attuned to the most intimate of human exchanges'. The Medal has previously been won by names such as T.S. Eliot, John Betjeman and W.H. Auden.

On this day...

T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland' was published in 1922. Arguably his most famous work, the poem is often considered a benchmark for modernist literature; especially considering that Joyce's 'Ulysses' and Woolf's 'Jacob's Room' were published in the same year. It is striking for its fusion of voice, location and image; blending Shakespearian lexis with that of contemporary London. Although the initial reception was mixed, one author deeming it 'a practically meaningless collection of phrases, learned allusions, quotations, slang, and scraps in general', the poem found an unlikely admirer in the Queen Mother. During World War Two, Eliot was invited to read the poem to the Royal Family, and she said of the visit; 'We had this rather lugubrious man in a suit, and he read a poem…I think it was called The Desert. And first the girls [Elizabeth and Margaret] got the giggles and then I did and then even the King.' Eliot was recently voted the 'nation's favourite poet' in a BBC poll.

Religious approval for Hughes?...

Poet Ted Hughes may be honoured with a plaque in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner. The Dean of Westminster said that he had received a number of letters persuading him to the cause; a cause supported by fellow poets Seamus Heaney and Andrew Motion. A former Poet Laureate, Hughes is best known for his marriage to Sylvia Plath, whose subsequent suicide in 1963 shocked the literary world. If selected for a plaque, Hughes would be the first since the man he succeeded as Poet Laureate in 1984, John Betjeman; and would join the likes of Thomas Hardy, William Blake and T.S. Eliot. Hughes died in 1998, and is described by Heaney as 'one of the vital presences in 20th century poetry.'

Nobel Eliot...

T.S. Eliot received the Nobel Prize for Literature 61 years ago today. The American, as one of the most popular poets in the modern era, was recognised for 'his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry.' He studied at both Harvard and Oxford, later deciding to reside permanently in England and became a British subject in 1927. Eliot's literary career started whilst he was working at Lloyd's Bank, founding a critical quarterly 'Criterion', and writing his first poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'. This work was the first of Eliot's 'new' style of poetry, identified through fragmented images and use of blank verse; a style epitomised in Eliot's most famous poem 'The Waste Land'. Eliot died in 1965, aged 76.

Eliot the nation's favourite poet...

Earlier this year, the BBC launched a Poetry Season, aimed to encourage wider interest and engage a new generation of readers. Highlights, and information on both poems and poets can be found on their website here. To coincide with this, they also ran a public vote to decide the nation's favourite poet. With more than 18, 000 votes cast, T.S. Eliot came out the winner, John Donne second, and Benjamin Zephaniah third. All three, although different eras and styles, are recognised for their highly influential works; 'The Waste Land', 'Holy Sonnet X' and 'Dis Poetry' respectively.