The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry is given for a book of verse published by someone from the United Kingdom or a Commonwealth realm.

Recommendations for the award of the medal are made by a committee of eminent men and women of letters, under the chairmanship of the Poet Laureate.

The recipient receives a gold medal. The obverse of the medal bears the crowned effigy of The Queen. The idea of the reverse, which was designed by Edmund Dulac, is: "Truth emerging from her well and holding in her right hand the divine flame of inspiration - Beauty is truth and Truth Beauty."

The medal is made by the Royal Mint and is paid for by Her Majesty.

Instituted in 1933 by King George V, the Queen's Medal for Poetry was the idea of the then Poet Laureate, John Masefield.

Distinguished past winners have included W. H. Auden (1936), John Betjeman (1960), Christopher Fry (1961), R. S. Thomas (1964), Philip Larkin (1965), Robert Graves (1968), Stevie Smith (1969), Stephen Spender (1971), Ted Hughes (1974) and Norman MacCaig (1985).