Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton

(1823-1896)

   Born at Woodford, Essex, the son of the author P.G. Patmore, he grew up without any sense of direction. When his father lost his money in 1845 through faulty speculations, he was forced to earn a living, firstly by freelance journalism, then as assistant in the printed book department of the British Museum. In 1849 he became linked to the preRaphaelite group of artists and contributed an essay on Macbeth, as well as verses to their organ, The Germ. One of his long narrative poems was The Angel in the House, which appeared in parts from 1854 to 1863. The death of his wife in 1862 from tuberculosis found expression in his poem "The Victories of Love." From 1885 he became a frequent contributor of essays and reviews to St. James's Gazette. He was one of the small group of religious poets influenced by the Oxford Movement. He died at Lymington, Hampshire. Some of his publications: Tamerton Church Tower, 1853. The Children's Garland, 1862. The Unknown Eros, 1877. Amelia, 1878. Some of his poems: "Alexander and Lycon," "Dartmoor," "The Flesh-Fly and the Bee," "Venus and Death."

   Sources: A Child's Treasury of Poems. Mark Daniel, ed. Dial / Penguin Books, 1986. A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. James H. Trott, ed. Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author. html). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). 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 Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Faber and Faber, 1977. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poems of Coventry Patmore. Frederick Page, ed. Oxford University Press, 1949.