Poet laureate and Wordsworth died. Edward Gibbon condemned the position's artificial approach to poetry: The salary has varied, but traditionally includes some alcohol. Ben Jonson first received a pension of 100 marks, and later an annual "terse of Canary wine". Dryden had a pension of £300 and a butt of Canary wine. Pye received £27 instead of the wine. Tennyson drew £72 a year from the Lord Chamberlain's department, and £27 from the Lord Steward's "in lieu of the butt of sack". The current annual salary is £5,750. The present laureate is Carol Ann Duffy, appointed in May 2009. The United Kingdom
Poet Laureate of New Jersey legislature recognized that the award's recipient would "be considered the poet laureate of the State of New Jersey for a period of two years. Before the position was abolished, only two poets, Gerald Stern and Amiri Baraka, had been appointed as the state's poet laureate. The legislature's bill was signed into law by Governor Christine Todd Whitman. It was expected that the award's recipient—the poet laureate—would "engage in activities to promote and encourage poetry within the State and shall give no fewer than two public readings within the State each year." In this respect, New Jersey's poet laureate was similar