Cooper’s Hill

…acted in 1641, and with Cooper’s Hill, a poem published in 1642. During the English Civil Wars, he was engaged at home and abroad in the cause of Charles I. Made a knight of the Bath and elected to the Royal Society after the Restoration in 1660, he also served…

…and Denham’s topographical poem “Cooper’s Hill” (1641), a significant work in its own right, is an important precursor of the balanced Augustan couplet (as is the otherwise slight oeuvre of Viscount Falkland). The growth of Augustan gentility was further encouraged by work done on translations in mid-century, particularly by…

…the publication of his poem Cooper’s Hill. Topographical poems were at their peak of popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries, though there are examples from the early 19th century, including several poems by George Crabbe, as well as by such modern writers as John Betjeman and Ted Hughes.