Charles Cotton was born on 28 April 1630 at Beresford Hall, near Alstonefield, on the Staffordshire side of the Peak District, and died in London on 16 February 1687. He belonged to that striking generation of English writers whose lives were shaped by civil war, regicide, Restoration, religious division, and the gradual reorganization of literary culture around print, patronage, and metropolitan fashion. Yet Cotton’…
“Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers, we, who improve his golden hours, by sweet experience know that marriage, rightly understood, gives to the tender and the good a paradise below.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Light Verse Poets, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Restoration Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
William Cowper was born on 26 November 1731 in the rectory at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the fourth child of the Reverend John Cowper, rector of the parish, and Ann Donne Cowper. His family belonged to the educated clerical and professional class, and it possessed distinguished connections: his father’s lineage included the Lord Chancellor William Cowper, while his mother was descended from the poet John Donne. Such…
“Home is the nicest word there is.”
Neighbourhood:
Devotional Poets, Hymn Writers, Political Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Tenderness, Wonder
