The preamble reads:
Unclued lights (one hyphenated) provide the names of the ten most
recent holders of an office to be deduced.
As of the time of publication the unclued lights are the surnames of
the ten most recent UK Poets Laureate, starting from WORDSWORTH and coming up
to date with DUFFY.
 1843-50 | William Wordsworth |
| 1850-92 | Alfred Lord Tennyson |
| 1896-1913 | Alfred Austin |
| 1913-30 | Robert Bridges |
| 1930-67 | John Masefield |
| 1968-72 | Cecil Day-Lewis |
| 1972-84 | Sir John Betjeman |
| 1984-98 | Ted Hughes |
| 1999-2009 | Andrew Motion |
| 2009-2019 | Carol Ann Duffy |
