Poet laureate the honour that no formal effusions from him should be required. Due to his age, he became the only laureate to write no official poetry. Tennyson was generally happy in his numerous poems of this class. On Tennyson's death there was a considerable feeling that there was no acceptable successor. William Morris and Swinburne were hardly suitable as court poets. Eventually the undesirability of breaking the tradition for temporary reasons, and severing the one official link between literature and the state, prevailed over the protests against allowing someone of inferior genius to follow Tennyson. Abolition was similarly advocated when Warton
Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia The Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia of the official poet of the District of Columbia. The Poet Laureate is officially appointed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The poet laureate program was established in 1984 by former mayor Marion Barry. The first poet laureate was Sterling A. Brown, a native Washingtonian and winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize he held the position until his death in 1989. On May 14, 1999 Dolores Kendrick was named the second Poet Laureate