coventry patmore
Coventry Patmore was a librarian by profession, and originally an Anglican by creed, but he later converted to Catholicism. ... To fellow lyricist Francis Thompson, Patmore was indeed "the greatest genius of the century." Together, both Patmore and Thompson brought English religious poetry to unexpected, perhaps unsurpassable heights. From childhood to grave Patmore believed himself obligated to celebrate married love, "the more serious importance of which had been singularly missed by most poets of all countries" he once said. ... The phrase "Angel in the House" comes from the title of an immensely popular poem by Coventry Patmore, in which he holds his angel-wife up as a model for all women. ... Coventry Patmore believed his wife Emily was the perfect Victorian wife and wrote "The Angel in the House" about her (originally published in 1854, revised through 1862). ... Patmore. ... It was immensely popular with the Victorian public, though its mixture of high-flown sentiment and banal details about middle-class life made it the object of much mockery from more sophisticated authors like Swinburne, and Gosse referred to Patmore as this laureate of the tea-table, with his humdrum stories of girls that smell of bread and butter’ (The Athenaeum, June 1886). ... Patmore received little formal education yet in 1844 published his first book of poems. ... Patmore made the acquaintance of the pre-Raphaelite group and converted to Catholicism in 1864.