The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry is awarded "for a book of verse published by someone from the United Kingdom or a Commonwealth realm".
It is an ad hoc award made as and when there is believed to be a worthy recipient, as there have been thirty-nine winners to date in the seventy odd years since it was first established by King George V in 1933 acting on a suggestion made by John Masefield, who was Poet Laureate at the time.
The award is made by the Queen acting on advice received from a "committee of eminent men and women of letters, under the chairmanship of the Poet Laureate", with the winner being announced on the 23rd April, the date which is traditionally regarded as being William Shakespeare's birthday.
The winner receives a gold medal struck by the Royal Mint and paid for by Her Majesty. The obverse of the medal bears the crowned effigy of the Queen, while the reverse bears the words 'For Poetry' and features a design by Edmund Dulac of a naked woman holding a flame in her hand
representing "Truth emerging from her well and holding in her right hand the divine flame of inspiration - Beauty is truth and Truth Beauty". (And inspired by an Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats.)
Past Winners
REFERENCES
Information taken from the official Buckingham Palace press release
'THE QUEEN'S GOLD MEDAL FOR POETRY 2007' dated 23 April 2007 see
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5946.asp