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 the state's right to remove him. On October 2, Baraka posting a defiant statement on his website stating in capital letters "I WILL NOT 'APOLOGIZE', I WILL NOT 'RESIGN!'" McGreevey and state officials learned that there was no legal way to remove Baraka in the law authorizing and defining the position. However, the city of Newark supported Baraka and his work, and responded to the attempts to remove him as poet laureate by appointing him to be the poet laureate of the Newark Public Schools in December 2002. On October 17, 2002, legislation was introduced in the General Assembly to