Flatman, Thomas

(1637-1688)

   Born in London, his education was at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, though he left without a degree in 1657 to take up law at Inner Temple. He was created M.A. of Cambridge by the king's letters of December 1666. He became a successful miniature painter as well as poet. Alexander Pope imitated Flatman's ode "A Thought of Death" in his own "The Dying Christian to His Soul." The Duke of Ormonde was so pleased with the ode on the death of his son, the Earl of Ossory (published in 1680), that he sent the poet a diamond ring. Some of his other publications: A Panegyric to Charles the Second, 1660. Poems and Songs, 1686 (4th edition). A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1686. Some of his other poems: "An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love," "Castabella Going to Sea," "De Rerum Natura [On the Nature of Things]" (translation of Lucretius), "Death," "On Marriage," "On the Death of the Earl of Rochester," "The Advice," "The Batchelor's Song," "The Defiance," "The Sad Day," "To His Sacred Majesty King James II."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Marriage. Helge Rubenstein, ed. Oxford University Press, 1990. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetry of Cats. Samuel Carr, ed. Viking Press, 1974.