Dictionary of Literary Biography: Sixteenth-Century British Nondramatic Writers, First Series

As a group, this generation of poets lived during one of the most tumultuous periods of change in the history of England- a period in which state and culture moved from 'medieval' to 'modern.' Theirs was 'a warlike, various, and a tragical age,' said poet Abraham Cowley 'best to write of, but worst to write in.' Thus, it is not surprising that these third generation seventeenth-century British nondramatic poets would incline repeatedly to writing public, historical poetry.

24 ENTRIES INCLUDE: Aphra Behn, Ann Collins, Abraham Cowley, John Dryden, Anne Killigrew , Richard Lovelace, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Katherine Philips, Thomas Traherne, Thomas Vaughan.