Traherne, Thomas (trəhûrn`), 1636?–1674, English poet and prose writer, one of the 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 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).

Traherne, Thomas

(born 1637, Hereford, Eng.—died 1674, Teddington) English mystical poet and religious writer. He was ordained in the Anglican church in 1660. Most of his works were unknown for centuries. The discovery in 1896 in a London street bookstall of the manuscripts of Poetical Works (1903) and the prose Centuries of Meditations (1908) created a literary sensation. Later the manuscript of Poems of Felicity (1910) was discovered in the British Museum. His poetry, though sometimes original and intense, is overshadowed by his vivid prose.