History

Poets’ Corner

Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, is a place of pilgrimage for literature lovers. More than 100 poets and writers are buried or have memorials here.

Many of those buried or remembered in Poets' Corner are world-famous, like William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Charles Dickens.

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Graves of Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy

Others, though popular in their day, are now less well known. The first poet to be buried here, in 1400, was Geoffrey Chaucer, author of 'The Canterbury Tales'. Not because he was a poet but because he was Clerk of the King's Works. Nearly 200 years later, Edmund Spenser (1553-1598) who wrote 'The Faerie Queene' for Elizabeth I, one of the longest poems in the English language, asked to be buried near Chaucer – perhaps with an eye on his own literary reputation. 

Geoffrey Chaucer

And, so began a tradition of burials and memorials which continues to this day. The Deans of Westminster decide who receives a place based on merit though they consult widely. Poets' Corner proper is in the eastern aisle, the 'corner', of the south transept, though over time graves and memorials have spread across the whole transept. There are also several clergymen and actors buried in this transept and musician George Frederic Handel.

Poets' Corner

Recent memorials include Ted Hughes, C.S. Lewis and Philip Larkin.

Memorial to Ted Hughes

Memorial to C.S. Lewis

Memorial to Philip Larkin

Further reading

Poets' Corner by James Wilkinson

For more information on poets and writers see our Famous People section.

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