Laureate genius. Abolition was similarly advocated when Thomas Warton and William Wordsworth died. The poet laureate, being a court official, was considered responsible for producing formal and appropriate verses on birthdays and state occasions; but his activity in this respect has varied, according to circumstances, and the custom ceased to be obligatory after Pye's death. Wordsworth stipulated, before accepting the honor, that no formal effusions from him should be considered a necessity; but Tennyson was generally happy in his numerous poems of this class. The emoluments of the post have varied; Ben Jonson first received a pension of 100 marks, and
Poet Laureate of New Jersey antisemitic and have pointed to several examples of a long pattern of anti-Semitism in his work and public statements though Baraka and his defenders defined his position as Anti-Zionism. Commenting on Baraka's poem and the resulting controversy, the state's first poet laureate Gerald Stern stated that he was "shocked at the stupidity of it" and remarked that the response to it was difficult to weigh—that although "we don't censor poets...lies never serve good, and there was hate in it." After Baraka's public reading, Governor McGreevey sought to remove Baraka from the poet laureate post. Baraka refused to resign and defied