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 a $10,000 honorarium and be considered the poet laureate of the State of New Jersey. This legislation, designed as Assembly Bill No. 2714, passed the General Assembly on March 29, 1999 with 72 votes in favour, 2 votes opposed. The bill was passed by the New Jersey State Senate on June 21, 1999 with a vote of 39 in favour and none opposed. The bill was signed into law by Governor Christine Todd Whitman on October 4, 1999. The statute provided that every two years, a panel of four persons from New Jersey "who are either distinguished poets or persons