{\b Michael Drayton}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 1563 (exact date uncertain)

{\b Date of Death}.: 23 December 1631

{\b Works}.

English poet. His most important work is contained in the 1619 edition of his 
Poems, and includes the sonnet 'Since There's No Help, Come Let Us Kiss and 
Part' which D.G. Rossetti described as 'almost the best in the language, if 
not quite'.  His 1606 Poems Lyric and Pastoral introduced the form of the 
Horatian ode to English poetry, and contains 'To the Virginian Voyage' and 
'Fair Stood the Wind for France'. He also wrote various poems on figures from 
mythology and history, notably England's Heroical Epistles (1597). His great 
work Poly-Olbion was intended as 'a chorographical description of all the 
tracts, rivers, mountains, forests, and other parts of Great Britain', and is 
one of the longest poems in English. Other works in his vast output include 
Idea. The Shepherd's Garland (1593), Idea's Mirror (1594), and Endymion and 
Phoebe (1595), one of the sources for Keats' Endymion.

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Parting', 'The Battle of Agincourt', '"How Many Paltry Foolish Painted 
Things"', 'To His Coy Love', '"If Chaste and Pure Devotion of My Youth"', '"To 
Nothing Fitter Can I Thee Compare"', '"Whilst Thus My Pen Strives To Eternise 
Thee"', '"Dear, Why Should You Command Me to My Rest"', 'To the Virginian 
Voyage'.

{\b General Comment}.

Drayton was born at Hartshill in Warwickshire and as a youth he became page to 
Sir Henry Goodere of Polesworth. He fell in love with Sir Henry's daughter, 
Anne, and worshipped her as 'Idea' in his poetry. Even after her marriage to 
Sir Henry Rainford he continued to celebrate her charms in verse, and he never 
married.

He had wanted to be a poet from the age of ten, and achieved his ambition 
through hard work and a succession of noble patrons, in spite of some 
ill-fortune. His first work was a verse paraphrase of parts of the Old 
Testament and Apocrypha, The Harmony of the Church. Ironically, the Harmony 
caused offence among the authorities and was banned. When James I became king 
in 1603 Drayton angled for royal favour with To the Majesty of King James: a 
Gratulatory Poem. Unfortunately he omitted to include the customary tribute to 
the late Queen Elizabeth, and this gaffe probably cost him an appointment at 
court.

In spite of this setback, Drayton had a fairly successful career as a poet, 
and he counted Ben Jonson and William Drummond of Hawthornden among his 
friends.