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 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