Very little is known about the life of Thomas Traherne (1637?-1674). After receiving his baccalaureate degree from Oxford, he took holy orders and spent his adult life in the Anglican church before dying of smallpox. His poetry, unpublished for two centuries after his death, shares many traits with those of England’s Metaphysical poets, but are also marked by a strong Christian spirituality. Some corners of the Anglican church now recognize Traherne in their calendar of saints.
