William Browne

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William Browne

English poet

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Born:: 1591?, Tavistock, Devonshire, Eng.

Died:: 1645?

Notable Works:: “Britannia’s Pastorals”

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William Browne (born 1591?, Tavistock, Devonshire, Eng.—died 1645?) was an English poet, author of Britannia’s Pastorals (1613–16) and other pastoral and miscellaneous verse.

Browne studied at the University of Oxford and entered the Inner Temple in 1611. Between 1616 and 1621 he lived in France. In 1623 he became tutor to Robert Dormer, the future Earl of Carnarvon, accompanying him to Eton and Oxford. His later life appears to have been spent near Dorking, Surrey.

Britannia’s Pastorals, modeled on the work of the poet Edmund Spenser, is a long, discursive pastoral narrative interspersed with songs. Devoted to his country, and especially to Devonshire, he attempted to glorify them in pastoral verse of epic dignity.

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

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