Birth of Edmund Waller

Posted in Anniversary, Literature on Sunday, 20 February 2011

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3 March marks the anniversary of the birth of poet and politician Edmund Waller in 1606.

picture, Edmund Waller, poet, politician

A portrait of Edmund Waller, poet and politician

Born in Coleshill, Hertfordshire, Waller was educated privately and at King’s College, Cambridge, but left the latter without a degree. He became an MP at the age of sixteen, he was arrested for his part in a plot to establish London as a stronghold of King Charles I. Sent to the Tower of London, he was released in 1643 on paying a fine of £10,000 and banished.

In France he composed Poems of Waller, published in 1645, and was allowed to return to England in 1651 where he wrote A Panegyric to my Lord Protector, in praise of Cromwell. Later, he penned To the King, upon his Majesty’s Happy Return in praise of Charles II. He continued to write poetry until his death in 1687.

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