author
Thomas Parnell
1679–1718
An Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman remembered for graceful verse and close ties to the literary world of his day, he moved in the circle of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. His best-known work includes "A Night-Piece on Death," and his poems were collected and published after his death.
1 Audiobook
Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes
by Samuel Johnson, Thomas Gray, Thomas Parnell, T. (Tobias) Smollett
About the author
Born in Dublin in 1679, Thomas Parnell became an Anglican clergyman as well as a poet. He studied at Trinity College Dublin and later served in the church, eventually becoming Archdeacon of Clogher.
Parnell was part of an important literary circle and was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. Pope admired his style and later edited and published his poems, helping preserve Parnell's reputation.
Though often described as a minor poet today, he was valued in his own time for the smoothness and feeling of his writing. He died in Chester on 24 October 1718.