On the following is a list of persons who have held the Library of Congress Poetry Position, or Poet Laureate since 1937. [Also see: The Laureates With Links to Their Poems]

• Joseph Auslander, 1937-1941 (Auslander's appointment to the Poetry chair had no fixed term)
• Allen Tate, 1943-1944
• Robert Penn Warren, 1944-1945
• Louise Bogan, 1945-1946
• Karl Shapiro, 1946-1947
• Robert Lowell, 1947-1948
• Leonie Adams, 1948-1949
• Elizabeth Bishop, 1949-1950
• Conrad Aiken, 1950-1952 (First to serve two terms)
• William Carlos Williams (Appointed in 1952 but did not serve)
• Randall Jarrell, 1956-1958
• Robert Frost, 1958-1959
• Richard Eberhart, 1959-1961
• Louis Untermeyer, 1961-1963
• Howard Nemerov, 1963-1964
• Reed Whittemore, 1964-1965
• Stephen Spender, 1965-1966
• James Dickey, 1966-1968
• William Jay Smith, 1968-1970
• William Stafford, 1970-1971
• Josephine Jacobsen, 1971-1973
• Daniel Hoffman, 1973-1974
• Stanley Kunitz, 1974-1976
• Robert Hayden, 1976-1978
• William Meredith, 1978-1980
• Maxine Kumin,1981-1982
• Anthony Hecht, 1982-1984
• Robert Fitzgerald, 1984-1985 (Appointed and served in a health-limited capacity, but did not come to the Library of Congress)
• Reed Whittemore, 1984-1985 (Interim Consultant in Poetry)
• Gwendolyn Brooks, 1985-1986
• Robert Penn Warren, 1986-1987 (First to be designated Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry)
• Richard Wilbur, 1987-1988
• Howard Nemerov, 1988-1990
• Mark Strand, 1990-1991
• Joseph Brodsky, 1991-1992
• Mona Van Duyn, 1992-1993
• Rita Dove, 1993-1995
• Robert Hass, 1995-1997
• Robert Pinsky, 1997-2000 (First to serve three consecutive terms. Special Consultants in 1999-2000: Rita Dove, Louise Glück, and W.S. Merwin) 
• Stanley Kunitz, 2000-2001

[The Laureates With Links to Their Poems]

Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature
From the Library of Congress