* Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (1966)
* Cholmondeley Award (1968)
* Whitbread Award for Poetry (1984, 1996)
* T. S. Eliot Prize (1995)
* David Cohen Prize for Literature (1995)
* Irish Times Poetry Prize (1995)
* International Griffin Poetry Prize (2001)
* Golden Wreath of Poetry (2011)
* Lifetime Recognition Award from the Poetry Society of America (2011)