Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were particularly cherished by the Victorian public. Five poets, Thomas Gray, Samuel Rogers, Walter Scott, Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney, turned down the laureateship. The holder of the position as of 2018 is Carol Ann Duffy, who was appointed in May 2009 on a fixed ten-year term. The origins of the poet laureateship date back to 1616 when James I of England granted a pension to
Poet Laureate of New Jersey two years in which the person appointed would be required to "engage in activities to promote and encourage poetry within the State and shall give no fewer than two public readings within the State each year." Poet Gerald Stern (born 1925), from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, was appointed as the state's first poet laureate by Governor Christine Todd Whitman on April 17, 2000. At the time of his appointment, Stern had been the author of twelve books of poetry and won the National Book Award for his 1998 collection "This Time: New and Selected Poems". Stern had been a finalist for