The Whitbread Poetry Award was one of the original categories included in the first Whitbread Book Awards of 1971, only to be discontinued in the following year. It was subsequently revived in 1985 and continued until 2005.

Past Winners

• 1971 - Geoffrey Hill Mercian Hymns

• 1985 - Douglas Dunn Elegies
• 1986 - Peter Reading Stet
• 1987 - Seamus Heaney The Haw Lantern
• 1988 - Peter Porter The Automatic Oracle
• 1989 - Michael Donaghy Shibboleth
• 1990 - Paul Durcan Daddy, Daddy
• 1991 - Michael Longley Gorse Fires
• 1992 - Tony Harrison The Gaze of the Gorgon
• 1993 - Carol Ann Duffy Mean Time
• 1994 - James Fenton Out of Danger
• 1995 - Bernard O'Donoghue Gunpowder
• 1996 - Seamus Heaney The Spirit Level
• 1997 - Ted Hughes Tales from Ovid
• 1998 - Ted Hughes Birthday Letters
• 1999 - Seamus Heaney Beowulf
• 2000 - John Burnside The Asylum Dance
• 2001 - Selima Hill Bunny
• 2002 - Paul Farley The Ice Age
• 2003 - Don Paterson Landing Light
• 2004 - Michael Symmons Roberts Corpus
• 2005 - Christopher Logue Cold Calls