Michael Drayton
born 1563, Hartshill, Warwickshire, Eng.
died 1631, London
English poet, the first to write odes in English
in the manner of Horace.
Drayton spent his early years in the service of
Sir Henry Goodere, to whom he owed his
education, and whose daughter, Anne, he
celebrated as Idea in his poems. His first
published work, The Harmonie of the Church
(1591), contains biblical paraphrases in an
antiquated style. His next works conformed more
nearly to contemporary fashion: in pastoral,
with Idea, The Shepheards Garland (1593); in
sonnet, with Ideas Mirrour (1594); in erotic
idyll, with Endimion and Phoebe (1595); and in
historical heroic poem, with Robert, Duke of
Normandy (1596) and Mortimeriados (1596). The
last, originally written in rhyme royal, was
recast in Ludovico Ariosto’s ottava rima verse
as The Barrons Warres (1603).
Drayton’s most original poems of this period
are Englands Heroicall Epistles (1597), a series
of pairs of letters exchanged between famous
lovers in English history.
Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603,
Drayton, like most other poets, acclaimed in
verse the accession of King James I, but he
failed to receive any appointment or reward. The
disappointment adversely affected his poetry of
the next few years: it is reflected in his
bitter satire The Owle (1604) and in his
nostalgia for the previous reign and his
implicitly negative attitude toward James I. In
Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall (1606) he introduced
a new mode with the “odes,” modeled on Horace.
“The Ballad of Agincourt” shows Drayton’s gift
for pure narrative.
Further collected editions culminated in his
most important book, Poems (1619). Here Drayton
reprinted most of what he chose to preserve,
often much revised, with many new poems and
sonnets. He had also published the first part of
his most ambitious work, Poly-Olbion (1612), in
which he intended to record comprehensively the
Elizabethan discovery of England: the beauty of
the countryside, the romantic fascination of
ruined abbeys, its history, legend, and present
life. He produced a second part in 1622. Written
in alexandrines (12-syllable lines), Poly-Olbion
is among the longest poems in English. Although
a monumental achievement, it is read only rarely
today.
In his old age he wrote some of his most
delightful poetry, especially the fairy poem
Nymphidia (1627), with its mock-heroic
undertones, and The Muses Elizium (1630). The
Elegies upon Sundry Occasions (1627), addressed
to his friends, often suggest, with their easy,
polished couplets, the manner of the age of
Alexander Pope.
