Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin
Alfred Austin, by Langfier, 1900.
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
In office 1 January 1896 – 2 June 1913
Monarch	Victoria Edward VII George V
Preceded by	Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Succeeded by	Robert Bridges
Personal details
Born	(1835-05-30)30 May 1835 Headingley, Yorkshire, England
Died	2 June 1913(1913-06-02) (aged 78) Ashford, Kent, England
Spouse	Hester Jane Homan-Mulock
Occupation	Poet, novelist, dramatist

Alfred Austin DL (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or refused the honour. It was claimed that he was being rewarded for his support for the Conservative leader Lord Salisbury in the General Election of 1895. Austin's poems are little remembered today, his most popular work being prose idylls celebrating nature. Wilfred Scawen Blunt wrote of him, “He is an acute and ready reasoner, and is well read in theology and science. It is strange his poetry should be such poor stuff, and stranger still that he should imagine it immortal.”