One matter that seems to bedevil modern readers, though, the pronunciation of "Cowley," may be resolved by spellings in other documents. Not to satisfy the matter, it is certain that the name was pronounced "Cooley" during the seventeenth century but nowadays, even in places where the poet lived such as Oxford and Chertsey, people refer to him in the bovine as "Cowley." The poet was born in London in 1618, the youngest of seven children. His father, Thomas, a London stationer of sufficient estate, died before Abraham's birth, making provision in a will dated 24 July 1618 for "the Childe or Children wch Thomasyn my wife now goeth withall." In the poem "To his very much honoured Godfather, Master A. B.," first published in the collection
Sylva (1636), Cowley explains that the name Abraham was given him from his godfather, of whom nothing more is known. An exact date of birth is uncertain, since the parish records of Saint Michael le Quern (Or Corn), Cheapside, where the poet was born, were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, the year before Cowley died.
This is a free page. This page contains 164 words. This
biography contains 3,964 words (approx. 13 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Abraham Cowley Access Pass.
