author
Richard Barnfield
1574–1627
An intriguing Elizabethan poet, he is remembered for graceful lyric verse, bold love poetry, and a lasting connection to Shakespeare’s literary world. Though he published only briefly, his work still stands out for its musical style and emotional directness.
1 Audiobook
The Affectionate Shepherd
by Richard Barnfield
About the author
Born in Staffordshire in 1574, Richard Barnfield studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, and came of age during the great flowering of Elizabethan poetry. Early on he was shaped by Virgil and by the sonnet craze that followed Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella, influences that can be felt in the elegance and classical tone of his verse.
Barnfield published a small but striking body of work in the 1590s, including The Affectionate Shepherd, Cynthia, with Certain Sonnets, and The Encomion of Lady Pecunia. He is especially known for the lyric “As it fell upon a day,” and for writing love poems to a male beloved, something that makes his voice unusual and important in English Renaissance poetry.
His name has also stayed alive because of his admiration for Shakespeare and because scholars have long linked him to Shakespeare’s circle, sometimes even suggesting he may be the “rival poet” of the sonnets. Even so, Barnfield’s poems need no footnote to be memorable: they are vivid, musical, and full of feeling.