Sunday, March 10, 2013

Poet John Denham died - 1669


Poet Sir John Denham died on March 10, 1669 in London, England. He was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1614 to Sir John Denham, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and his second wife Eleanor Moore, daughter of the 1st Viscount Moore. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford and at Lincoln’s Inn, London. Denham became a Member of Parliament in 1661. Denham began his literary career with a tragedy The Sophy (1641), but his poem Cooper’s Hill (1642), is the work by which he is best remembered. It is the first example in English of a poem devoted to local description of the Thames Valley in Surrey. Denham wrote many versions of this poem, reflecting the political and cultural upheavals of the English Civil War. Denham exerted an influence on versification and poetical utterance (which along with his contemporary Edmund Waller), earned them the title of 'Sons of British Poetry'. Denham last years were clouded by dementia and he died on March 10, 1669 in London. He was buried within Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.

 
Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following links:
 

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