For a job which pays only GBP5,000 (HK$62,000) a year and a few bottles of wine, the new appointment has provoked an extraordinary amount of interest.
The announcement of a new poet laureate has also provoked a collective raspberry from the literary world and accusations of political skullduggery.
Andrew Motion, a 47-year-old writer more famous for his biographies of other poets than for his own verse, has been awarded the job, which carries minimum responsibilities and maximum kudos.
The post of poet laureate is one of those peculiarly British offices for which qualifications are arbitrary and amateurism is often preferred over professionalism.
Officially the laureate does not have to write anything, though by tradition he is expected to pick up his pen to compose a few lines to commemorate events of national importance.
Since the post was created in 1692 most poets have restricted their formal compositions to stanzas celebrating events involving the monarch, with recent incumbents taking this to mean they were required to mark royal weddings.
