The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry".
The Society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society in 1912. Its first President was Lady Margaret Sackville.
The Poetry Society publishes Poetry Review, Britain's leading poetry magazine, which provides a forum for poems from both new and established poets. Its editor from 2005 to 2012 was Fiona Sampson.
The Society organises several competitions, including the British National Poetry Competition, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, The Popescu Prize, The Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and the Geoffrey Dearmer Award. The society also ran the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize from 1986 to 1997.
Famous quotes containing the words poetry and/or society:
“I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence—this may look like affectation but it is my real opinion. It is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“A society in which everyone works is not necessarily a free society and may indeed be a slave society; on the other hand, a society in which there is widespread economic insecurity can turn freedom into a barren and vapid right for the millions of people.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)