Selected Poems

Abraham Cowley (1618-67) was one of the most popular English poets of his time. 'He must always,' said Dryden, 'be thought a great poet.' His work was held in high esteem by Milton, Johnson (who wrote one of the greatest of his Lives about him), Pope and Wordsworth.He has been unduly neglected in our century, and this selection, with critical introduction and annotations, is designed to re-introduce Cowley to modern readers as a writer of intrinsic rather than merely historical interest. His restoration to the available canon is timely: his poetry has lessons for the latter years of this century much as Donne's had for the poets of the early twentieth century.Abraham Cowley: Selected Poems is the only affordable selection of his work currently in print, and usefully complements the multi-volume library edition being produced by the University of Delaware Press.