Traherne, Thomas [key], 1636?–1674, English poet and prose writer, one of the metaphysical poets. He was schooled at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was chaplain to the Lord Keeper from 1667 until his death. His writings express an ardent, childlike love of God and a firm belief in man's relation to the divine. Although Roman Forgeries and Christian Ethicks were published in 1673 and 1675 respectively, his finest work was lost for many years. In 1896 a manuscript of his poetry and prose was discovered in a London bookstall and subsequently was published as Poems (1903) and Centuries of Meditations (1908).
See his poems ed. by A. Ridler (1966); biography by G. I. Wade (1944, repr. 1969); study by A. L. Clements (1969).
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