As poet-laureate, his occasional verses did not escape adverse criticism; his hasty poem in praise of the Jameson Raid in 1896 being a notable instance.
Wordsworth died, and on the 19th of November 1850 Queen Victoria appointed Tennyson poet laureate.
But all these poems are surpassed in length by the 33,000 distichs of the Shakinsha/mnama by the poet-laureate of Fatly All Shah of Persia (1797-1834), and the 40,000 distichs of the Georgenama, a poetical history of India from its discovery by the Portuguese to the conquest of Poona by the English in 1817.
In 1486 he published his first book, Ars versificandi et carminum, which created an immense sensation and gained him the honour of being crowned as the first poet laureate of Germany, the ceremony being performed by the emperor Frederick III.
He became poet laureate in 1930 and in 1935 was made a member of the Order of Merit.