Thomas Traherne
| Thomas Traherne | |
|---|---|
| Birthplace | Hereford, England |
| Died | |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | |
Traherne, Thomas
(trəhûrn`), 1636?–1674, English poet and prose writer, one of the metaphysical poetsmetaphysical poets,name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th cent. The term was first used by Samuel Johnson (1744). The hallmark of their poetry is the metaphysical conceit (a figure of speech that employs unusual and paradoxical images), a reliance on
..... Click the link for more information. . He was schooled at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was chaplain to the Lord Keeper from 1667 until his death. His writings express an ardent, childlike love of God and a firm belief in man's relation to the divine. Although Roman Forgeries and Christian Ethicks were published in 1673 and 1675 respectively, his finest work was lost for many years. In 1896 a manuscript of his poetry and prose was discovered in a London bookstall and subsequently was published as Poems (1903) and Centuries of Meditations (1908).
Bibliography
See his poems ed. by A. Ridler (1966); biography by G. I. Wade (1944, repr. 1969); study by A. L. Clements (1969).