Coventry Patmore (1823-1896)

In his time Coventry Patmore was considered one of the major poets of the nineteenth century. Born in England, he was the son of another writer, P.G. Patmore. Coventry Patmore’s early poems were published by the zeal of his father, and gained prophecies of future greatness from Leigh Hunt and others. In 1853 was published his first mature work, “Tamerton Church Tower and other Poems”, and in 1854 appeared the first part of a more deliberate work, “The Angel in the House”, which quickly famous. After his first wife died in 1862, he became a Catholic in Rome. His second wife, Marianne Byles, was also Catholic. During the period of his first marriage Patmore had lived in the intimacy of Ruskin, Browning, Tennyson, Dobell, Millais, Woolner, Rossetti, and Holman Hunt, and was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, especially in the production of the “Germ”, to which he contributed poetry and prose. During his last years he withdrew into the country, and gave his time almost entirely to meditation.
(From the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia)