Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom office. Dryden's successor, Thomas Shadwell, was appointed in 1689 for life. He introduced the custom of producing poems for the new year and the monarch's birthday, which became one of the key duties of the position. After the appointment of William Wordsworth in 1843 the duties settled into an expectation, not requirement, for major court and national occasions. Alfred, Lord Tennyson held the post between November 1850 and October 1892. According to Andrew Motion and Hilary Laurie, Tennyson "gave the poet laureateship new status and significance" with works such as "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and
North Carolina Poet Laureate of the North Carolina General Assembly created the office, giving the Governor of North Carolina the power "to name and appoint some outstanding and distinguished man of letters as poet-laureate for North Carolina." Changes to the position began in 1997 when Governor Jim Hunt appointed Fred Chappell as poet laureate, changing the term of office from a lifetime appointment to a term of five years. Hunt stated that he did this because the state had many quality poets. Lisbeth Evans, Secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources (which oversees the NC Arts Council), organized a committee in 2004 to update