Eusden, Laurence (1688-1730), was poet laureate of Britain (now the United Kingdom) from 1718 to 1730. Eusden was a minor poet of the period who was known mainly for his translations of works by ancient Greek and Roman writers.
The Duke of Newcastle, lord chamberlain to King George I, appointed Eusden to the post of poet laureate. Eusden had gained the duke’s favor by writing a poem celebrating the duke’s marriage to Lady Henrietta Godolphin in 1717. After the previous poet laureate, Nicholas Rowe, died in December 1718, the duke offered Eusden the post. Authors and critics of the time criticized Eusden’s appointment. The great British poet Alexander Pope, in his poem The Dunciad (1728-1743), includes Eusden in his description of dull writers.
Eusden was born in September 1688 in Spofforth, Yorkshire. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge University, graduating in 1712. He trained as a clergyman between 1722 and 1725, and then became rector of the village of Coningsby, near Lincoln, where he remained until his death on Sept. 27, 1730.
Most of Eusden’s original poems are odes to mark royal and national occasions, such as his To Her Royal Highness on the Birth of the Prince (1718) and Three Poems to the King and Queen (1727). Eusden’s translation of part of the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses was published in 1717.
