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Michael Drayton [1563-1631] ENG
Ranked #241 in the top 380 poets
Votes 55%: 30 up, 25 down

Epic poem in rhyme royal, heroic couplet.

Rich vocabulary of plant names, star names, and other unusual words; the frequent use of original contractional forms, sometimes with double apostrophes, like "th'adult'rers" or "pois'ned'st"

Poet. Born at Hartshill, Warwickshire. He entered the household of Sir Henry Goodere of Polesworth, a patron of the arts who ensured that he was given a good education. Almost one of the family, Michael Drayton became besotted with his patron`s daughter, Anne, and he was to write poetry about her, in the form of an "Idea". He continued to visit her after she was married and living at Clifford Chambers, south of Stratford-upon-Avon. Little is known of his life, except what can be gleaned from his copius writings, but he was able to eke out a living by attracting further patrons, spending most of his adult life in London. Although never achieving royal patronage he could coHis first work to be published was The harmony of the church (1591) which was based on Old Testament writings. Two years later Idea; the shepherd`s garland appeared and this was very much in the style of Edmund Spencer (1552-1599). It included a lament on the death of Sir Philip Sidney. The sonnet was very fashionable at this time and Drayton`s major sonnet sequence was launched with Idea`s mirror in 1594.

Heroical epistles (1596) draws on material contained in Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, the work of Raphael Holinshed (and others) first published in 1577, a work used extensively by William Shakespeare. Holinshed had Warwickshire connections including being a steward at Bramcote Hall, near to Polesworth, and he may have been known to Michael Drayton. Drayton wrote in the style of Ovid, substituting English heroes drawn from Holinshed for mythological lovers.

The most ambitious work of Michael Drayton is his Poly-Olbion which he wrote and revised over a period of twenty-four years, finally completing it in 1622. It describes a journey through the English countryside in a series of thirty songs, each up to 500 lines long.

Sonnet, Elizabethan

YearsCountryPoetInteraction
1564-1616
ENG
William Shakespeare
→ friend of Michael Drayton
-43--17
ROM
Ovid
← imitated by Michael Drayton
1572-1637
ENG
Ben Jonson
← friend of Michael Drayton


WorkLangRating
Sonnet IV: Bright Star of Beauty
eng
4
Idea LXI: Since there `s no help
eng
3
Sonnet LXII: When First I Ended
eng
3
Sonnet XX: An Evil Spirit
eng
1
Sonnet XXXV: Some, Misbelieving
eng
1
To the Reader of these Sonnets
eng
1
Ballad of Agincourt
eng
0
Endimion and Phoebe (excerpts)
eng
0
Idea LI: Calling to mind since first my love begun
eng
0
Idea LIII: To the River Ancor
eng
0
Idea XX: An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still
eng
0
Idea XXXVII: Dear, why should you command me to my rest
eng
0
Noah`s Flood (excerpts)
eng
0
Nymphidia, The Court Of Fairy
eng
0
Ode to the Cambro-Brito
eng
0
Roc
eng
0
Sirena
eng
0
Sonnet I: Like an Advent`rous Seafarer
eng
0
Sonnet II: My Heart Was Slain
eng
0
Sonnet III: Taking My Pen
eng
0
Sonnet IX: As Other Men
eng
0
Sonnet L: As in Some Countries
eng
0
Sonnet LI: Calling to Mind
eng
0
Sonnet LII: What? Dost Thou Mean
eng
0
Sonnet LIII: Clear Anker
eng
0
Sonnet LIV: Yet Read at Last
eng
0
Sonnet LIX: As Love and I
eng
0
Sonnet LV: My Fair, If Thou Wilt
eng
0
Sonnet LVI: When Like an Eaglet
eng
0
Sonnet LVII: You Best Discern`d
eng
0
Sonnet LVIII: In Former Times
eng
0
Sonnet LX: Define My Weal
eng
0
Sonnet LXI: Since There`s No Help
eng
0
Sonnet LXIII: Truce, Gentle Love
eng
0
Sonnet V: Nothing But No
eng
0
Sonnet VI: How Many Paltry Things
eng
0
Sonnet VII: Love in a Humour
eng
0
Sonnet VIII: There`s Nothing Grieves Me
eng
0
Sonnet X: To Nothing Fitter
eng
0
Sonnet XI: You Not Alone
eng
0
Sonnet XII: That Learned Father
eng
0
Sonnet XIII: Letters and Lines
eng
0
Sonnet XIV: If He From Heav`n
eng
0
Sonnet XIX: You Cannot Love
eng
0
Sonnet XL: My Heart the Anvil
eng
0
Sonnet XLI: Why Do I Speak of Joy
eng
0
Sonnet XLII: Some Men There Be
eng
0
Sonnet XLIII: Why Should Your Fair Eyes
eng
0
Sonnet XLIV: Whilst Thus My Pen
eng
0
Sonnet XLIX: Thou Leaden Brain
eng
0
Sonnet XLV: Muses, Which Sadly Sit
eng
0
Sonnet XLVI: Plain-Path`d
eng
0
Sonnet XLVII: In Pride of Wit
eng
0
Sonnet XLVIII: Cupid, I Hate Thee
eng
0
Sonnet XV: Since to Obtain Thee
eng
0
Sonnet XVI: Mongst All the Creatures
eng
0
Sonnet XVII: Stay, Speedy Time
eng
0
Sonnet XVIII: To This Our World
eng
0
Sonnet XXI: A Witless Galant
eng
0
Sonnet XXII: Love, Banish`d Heav`n
eng
0
Sonnet XXII: With Fools and Children
eng
0
Sonnet XXIV: I Hear Some Say
eng
0
Sonnet XXIX: When Conquering Love
eng
0
Sonnet XXV: O Why Should Nature
eng
0
Sonnet XXVI: I Ever Love
eng
0
Sonnet XXVII: Is Not Love Here
eng
0
Sonnet XXVIII: To Such As Say
eng
0
Sonnet XXX: Those Priests
eng
0
Sonnet XXXI: Methinks I See
eng
0
Sonnet XXXII: Our Flood`s-Quee
eng
0
Sonnet XXXIII: Whilst Yet Mine Eyes
eng
0
Sonnet XXXIV: Marvel Not, Love
eng
0
Sonnet XXXIX: Some, When in Rhyme
eng
0
Sonnet XXXVI: Thou Purblind Boy
eng
0
Sonnet XXXVIII: Sitting Alone, Love
eng
0
To His Coy Love
eng
0
To His Valentine
eng
0
To the Harp
eng
0
To The Virginian Voyage
eng
0

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