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 "Loved Laurel-Crowned Poet of California" by a 1919 state Senate resolution, retaining the title until her death in 1928. Juan Felipe Herrera was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown in March, 2012. The State of Colorado appointed one of the most popular Poets Laureate of the late 20th century, singer/songwriter writer John Denver. Twin Poets, Nnamdi Chukwuocha and Albert Mills, were selected as 17th Poets Laureate of the State of Delaware on December 13, 2015. Edmund Skellings was selected as the poet laureate of Florida in 1980. He died in 2012. Illinois appointed its first poet laureate, Howard Austin, in 1936,