Michael Drayton

Born in Warwickshire in 1563, Michael Drayton became one of the notable English poets of the late Elizabethan and early Stuart period. Much about his early education remains uncertain, but he found support through patronage and built a long writing career that stretched across the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

Drayton wrote in several modes, including pastoral poetry, sonnets, historical verse, and poetic letters. He is especially known for Poly-Olbion, an ambitious topographical poem that celebrates the rivers, hills, legends, and counties of England and Wales. He also wrote the sonnet sequence Idea, showing a very different, more personal side of his poetry.

Though he is less widely read now than some of his contemporaries, Drayton was admired for the scale of his ambition and for his strong sense of England’s history and character. He died in London in 1631 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, a sign of the respect he earned in his own time.