John Dryden

(, Main - Poet to Poet)

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In the "Poet to Poet" series, a contemporary poet advocates a poet of the past or present whom they have particularly admired. By their selection of verses and their critical reactions, the selectors offer intriguing insights into their own work. Here, Charles Tomlinson selects John Dryden. John Dryden (1631-1700), was educated at Westminster School and Cambridge University and became the leading literary figure of the Restoration period. Poet, playwright, polemicist and critic, Dryden became Poet Laureate in 1668 and Historiographer Royal in 1670. He concluded his vast output with "Fables Ancient and Modern" (1700). Charles Tomlinson was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1927, studied at Queen's College, Cambridge and taught at the University of Bristol from 1957. His first volume of poems "Relations and Contraries", was published in 1951, and has been followed by numerous works, gathered in his "Collected Poems" of 1985. "The Vineyard above the Sea" (2002), is his most recent collection.

Author Bio

John Dryden (1631-1700) was educated at Westminster School and Cambridge University and became the leading literary figure of the Restoration period. Poet, playwright, polemicist and critic, Dryden became Poet Laureate in 1669 and Historiographer Royal in 1670. He concluded his vast output with Fables Ancient and Modern (1700). Charles Tomlinson was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1927, studied at Queen's College, Cambridge, and taught at the University of Bristol from 1957, where he became professor of English Literature in 1982. His first volume of poems, Relations and Contraries, was published in 1951, and has been followed by numerous works, gathered most recently in New Collected Poems (2009).