Michael Drayton was born in 1563 in or near the English village of Hartshill, Warwickshire. Though the facts of his early life are uncertain, some plausible details have been drawn from notes in his poetry itself, including a stint at Oxford and employment in the household of Sir Henry Goodere. Whatever the particulars of Drayton’s young life, they produced in him a feverish inspiration for poetic composition and the capacity to turn his ideas into stacks of finished pages.
Drayton published his first volume of poems, The Harmony of the Church, in 1590. This collection of spiritual poetry found itself on the wrong side of Church of England authorities, and the full print run was seized and almost entirely destroyed. However, Drayton was undeterred and continued to write voluminously until his death in 1631. Drayton’s work found its outlet in many styles and genres but tended towards historical and mythological epics, often devoting significant commentary to the nature of art and poetry itself. He also popularized the term “ode” in English. Although English tastes changed late in his life towards shorter and more naturalistic work, he was nevertheless widely revered in his time and was buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner.