Birth date: 
1612
Death date: 
1649
Birth town: 
Country: 
England

Richard was the only son of William Crashaw, a puritan preacher in London who had officiated at the burning of Mary, Queen of Scots. In defiance of his father's views on religion, Crashaw went to a High Church college at Cambridge, Pembroke. He later became a fellow of Peterhouse College but was forced to resign because of his Roman Catholic leanings.

Victory for Oliver Cromwell's Puritans in the Civil War made England a dangerous place for Catholic sympathisers like Crashaw, and in 1644 he fled to France. He became a Catholic sometime around 1645. His friend Abraham Cowley found him living in poverty in Paris, and introduced him to Charles I's Queen, Henrietta Maria. She sent Crashaw to Rome with a recommendation to the Pope. On his arrival in Italy however, Crashaw was simply allotted a position in a cardinal's household. Four months before he died, he was made a sub-canon of the Cathedral of Santa Casa in Loreto.

Crashaw was much influenced by the Italian poet Marino, as well as his reading of the Italian and Spanish mystics. Though his verse is somewhat uneven in quality, at its best it is characterised by brilliant use of extravagant baroque imagery.

Poems by this Poet

Displaying 81 - 90 of 156
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On the Miracle of Loaves 19 May 2014
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On the Gunpowder-Treason 5 September 2014
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On the Glorious Assumption of Our Blessed Lady 29 November 2013
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On the Frontispiece of Isaacsons Chronologie Explained 5 September 2014
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On the Blessed Virgins Bashfulnesse 29 November 2013
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On the Bleeding Wounds of Our Crucified Lord 19 May 2014
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On the Baptized Ethiopian 31 July 2013
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On St. Peter Casting Away His Nets at Our Saviours Call 5 September 2014
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On Saint Peter Cutting of Malchus His Eare 19 May 2014
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On Nanus Mounted on an Ant 5 September 2014
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