Coventry Patmore

Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) was an English poet and critic. The son of an improvident man of letters, he worked for nearly twenty years as an assistant in the printed books department of the British Museum and was a friend of the Pre-Raphaelites, who published his early verse in The Germ. The Angel in the House, a long poem on his marriage to Emily Andrews, appeared in parts from 1854 and was immensely popular. After her death he converted to Catholicism, remarried twice, and wrote the odes of The Unknown Eros, which are now more admired than the earlier work. He also published essays on art, religion and prosody.