Richard Crashaw
1612 - 1649

English poet. His first published poetry was in Latin, Epigrammatum Sacrorum Liber [A Book of Sacred Epigrams] (1634). His next collection, published in 1646, was made up of poems in Latin and English, and was divided into a section of religious verse, Steps to the Temple, and one of secular poetry, Delights of the Muses. This book contained his most famous poems, including 'Music's Duel', 'Wishes. To his (supposed) Mistresse', and the poems addressed to St Theresa, 'The Flaming Heart' and the hymn 'Love, thou art absolute sole Lord / Of Life and Death'. An enlarged version of this collection was published three years after Crashaw's death, under the title Carmen Deo Nostro, and incorporated twelve of his own drawings.