Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Prime Minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official holder of the position was John Dryden, appointed in 1668 by Charles II. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850
Poet Laureate of New Jersey antisemitic and have pointed to several examples of a long pattern of anti-Semitism in his work and public statements though Baraka and his defenders defined his position as Anti-Zionism. Commenting on Baraka's poem and the resulting controversy, the state's first poet laureate Gerald Stern stated that he was "shocked at the stupidity of it" and remarked that the response to it was difficult to weigh—that although "we don't censor poets...lies never serve good, and there was hate in it." After Baraka's public reading, Governor McGreevey sought to remove Baraka from the poet laureate post. Baraka refused to resign and defied