WITH Cowley the Elizabethan mode in lyric verse exhausted its force and fell into such complete disuse that it scarcely reappears at all as an influence in literature until it was revived by Austin Dobson and other writers of vers de Societé in the nineteenth century. With Cowley it was highly artificial, for it is said that in spite of the “violent amatory affectation” of his poems, he never ventured to talk love to a real woman during his entire lifetime. His poems are neglected, but he still keeps his place among the classical essayists of the English language. His style descends from Dante, whose habit of making the prose of an essay depend largely on the introduction in it or after it of an original poem, Cowley imitates sometimes with pleasing results.

  He was born in London in 1618; and in 1633, while still at school, published “Poetical Blossoms,” a volume of juvenile verses which made him famous. He was educated at Cambridge, but in 1643 left the university because of his strong Royalist sympathies. He followed the Stuarts into exile and returned as court poet after the Restoration, but soon retired to a country seat near Chertsey, where he died July 28th, 1667. His principal poetical works are “The Mistress,” “Pindaric Odes,” “Love’s Riddle,” and “Miscellanies.”