Richard Crashaw

Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 – 21 August 1649), was an English poet, styled "the divine," and known as one of the central figures associated with the Metaphysical poets in 17th Century English literature. The son of a prominent Puritan priest, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After taking a degree, Crashaw began to publish religious poetry and to teach at Cambridge. However, his conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism during the English Civil War and at a time of great hostilities between the two Christian denominations, led to his ouster from Cambridge and forced him into exile.

Crashaw's poetry is firmly within the Metaphysical tradition. Though his oeuvre is considered of uneven quality and among the weakest examples of the genre, his work is said to be marked by a focus toward "love with the smaller graces of life and the profounder truths of religion, while he seems forever preoccupied with the secret architecture of things."