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
New Zealand Poet Laureate National Library of New Zealand took over the appointment of the Poet Laureate, and has appointed the last six Laureates: Michele Leggott, Cilla McQueen, Ian Wedde, Vincent O'Sullivan, C. K. Stead, and the incumbent Selina Tusitala Marsh. The National Library accepts public nominations for the position, as well as nominations from universities, libraries and creative writing programmes. The National Librarian of New Zealand then makes the decision following advice from the Poet Laureate Advisory Council, which currently includes first Laureate Bill Manhire and Te Mata Estate chairman John Buck. The value of the award granted to the Poet Laureate is