ABSTRACT
It is difficult to say very much in favor of the odes that Southey wrote as laureate. It was ironic that he received this official recognition just as he was turning away from poetry and in the very year (1813) of his outstanding prose success in The Life of Nelson. That he was the first poet of any stature whatsoever to receive the post within a century gave the office an importance it had not enjoyed, but for Southey himself it is questionable whether the post brought him a corresponding honor. Great poetry is seldom written on command or in connection with an official duty. Southey's official odes partake more of prose or stately declamation than of poetry. The subject matter of an official poem was bound to be distasteful to his contemporaries who were critical of the monarchy since poems upon state occasions of necessity praised the deeds of kings, queens, and generals.
