With Mayor Thomas Menino’s blessing, the Boston City Council took one step closer last night to making the city a little more eloquent, creating a task force that will be charged with appointing Boston’s first official poet laureate.

Councilor John Tobin (Jamaica Plain) discussed the position with about 20 residents, students and a few aspiring poets at City Hall, stressing the move’s importance to the city, although the Council has been criticized for the amount of attention it has given to the proposed position.

Tobin said he was inspired to create the position after reading Joseph Bergin’s Hub-themed collection of poems, The Boston Seasons Quartet.

Bergin, who approached Tobin with the idea, attended the meeting to announce the plan but said he is not seeking the position.

“Now this plan has legs, and we have to go find the funding [and decide on] qualifications for the new poet laureate and the job description,” Bergin said.

Tobin said he liked Bergin’s suggestion and added he was surprised Boston, with its extensive literary history, did not already have an official bard.

“I didn’t give much thought to it,” he told The Daily Free Press. “We proposed it, and it was all over the news.”

He said the criticism the Council has received since it first floated the idea in January is unfounded, because city funds would not pay for the poet’s stipend.

“Private companies would fund it,” he said. “The way we’ve presented it, it’s hard for me to see how someone could be against it.”

One of the most vocal critics of the plan has been Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory, who wrote in a Feb. 27 column the Council’s attention to finding a poet laureate detracts from time it could spend seeking solutions to real problems affecting Boston, such as gang violence.

Julie Burns, director of the Department of Arts, Tourism, and Special Events, said the Council will seek expert advice on selecting a laureate.

“[The position] will illustrate the literary strengths and allows us to capture the unique events and activities that happen in the city,” Burns said.

Officials in Cambridge liked the Council’s idea so much they have decided to appoint a poet laureate for their city.

“We’ll leave it to them to choose their own,” Tobin said.

Though author and musician Marc Widershien said he supports the idea of a poet laureate, he said the Council “may be on the verge of cluelessness” on how to go about the process, adding it should have already consulted literary experts.

“Who is going to decide who is worthy and who is not?” he said.

Boston College freshman Skye Shirley said young poets could look to the laureate as a role model.

“The poetry written by the poet laureate will unite the city and bring more appreciation for the arts,” she said.

Staff writer Andrew Benjamin contributed reporting to this article.