`lē, kou`–), 1618–67, one of the English metaphysical poets metaphysical 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..... Click the link for more information. . He published his first volume of verse, Poetical Blossoms (1633), when he was 15. While a student at Cambridge, Cowley wrote three plays and began the scriptural epic Davideis (1656), in which he developed the use of the couplet as a vehicle for narrative verse. As a result of the Puritan uprising he left Cambridge and in 1656 went to France, where he served as secretary and royalist agent for Queen Henrietta Maria. Cowley's principal works include The Mistress (1647), a love cycle written in the manner of John Donne; Poems (1656), including the Pindaric odes and the elegies on Richard Crashaw and William Hervey; and Verses on Several Occasions (1663), including "To the Royal Society," an ode recalling his earlier prose tract Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy (1661).
Bibliography
See Samuel Johnson's essay in Lives of the English Poets (1778); biographies by A. H. Nethercot (1931, repr. 1967) and J. G. Taaffe (1972); studies by R. B. Hinman (1960) and D. Trotter (1979).
Cowley, Abraham
(born 1618, London—died July 28, 1667, Chertsey, Eng.) British poet and essayist. He was a fellow at the University of Cambridge but was ejected for his political opinions during the English Civil Wars; he joined the queen's court, performing Royalist missions until 1656. In his poetic works—which include The Mistress (1647, 1656), the unfinished epic Davideis (1656), and Pindarique Odes (1656), in which he adapted the Pindaric ode to English verse—he used grossly elaborate, fanciful, poetic language that was more decorative than expressive. In his retirement he wrote sober, reflective essays.
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