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
Poet Laureate of Washington by state senator Ken Jacobsen to create the office. Jacobsen's original proposal called for the poet laureate to be paid with a firkin of beer annually, however, the act as finally adopted simply specifies that the poet laureate "shall receive compensation at a level determined by the [Washington Arts] commission". From 2009 to 2011 the office of poet laureate was vacant due to a paucity of state funds. In 2016 Gonzaga University professor Tod Marshall was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate of Washington. Marshall's major initiative during his term is Washington 129, an anthology of 129 poems gathered from Washingtonians