Hughes's first book of poems, Hawk in the Rain, won critical acclaim upon its release in 1957A memorial to the late poet Ted Hughes has been unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.
A stone bearing his name and lines of his poetry has been placed underneath the stone for his publisher, TS Eliot.
Fellow poet Seamus Heaney unveiled the memorial in front of more than 300 guests, who included Hughes's widow Carol and daughter Frieda.
The greatest poets of the age have been honoured with a tomb or a stone in a tradition going back 600 years.
Chaucer, Tennyson and Hardy are among those buried in Poets' Corner, and others including Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Blake and Eliot are memorialised there.
Hughes's stone is inscribed with lines from his poem "That Morning", which read: "So we found the end of our journey / So we stood alive in the river of light / Among the creatures of light, creatures of light."
Heaney and actress Juliet Stevenson were among those who gave readings at the event, whose guests included broadcaster Lord Melvyn Bragg.
'Religious vision'Speaking to BBC News ahead of the ceremony, Heaney said: "I think Ted would be utterly honoured to be at the foot of TS Eliot and he would indeed be honoured to be in the corner.
"He was a poet of England and though he may not have been as conventional a member of the Anglican church as TS Eliot was, he had basically a religious vision so he would be very happy to be in the Abbey.
"I think it's what he deserves, it's his due. Thinking of the other poets who are there, there's a memorial to the First World War poets who meant everything to him.
"Also, there's a memorial to Sir John Betjeman, a previous Poet Laureate; there's a memorial to John Clare who was a nature poet; and a memorial to William Blake - a visionary. I think Ted is at home in that company."
Speaking of his friend's death more than a decade ago, the writer added: "I think we've lost a patriot, visionary English poet. And a great poet."
It was announced last year that Hughes would be honoured in Poets' Corner but the exact location was not known until last month.
The writer, from Yorkshire, died aged 68, just months after his last collection of poems - Birthday Letters - was published.
Poet Seamus Heaney told the BBC's Will Gompertz that his friend, Ted Hughes, deserved a place at Poets' Corner
The poems were about his first marriage to American poet Sylvia Plath, who killed herself in 1963 after they split up.
A letter Hughes wrote to her in 1956 was chosen as one of the readings at the ceremony.
His first book of poems, Hawk in the Rain, won critical acclaim upon its release in 1957. He became Poet Laureate in 1984 and remained in the post until his death from cancer in 1998.
Charles Dickens, Samuel Johnson and Rudyard Kipling are among the other writers buried in the Abbey.
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