PAT'MORE, COVENTRY KEARSEY DIGHTON ). An English poet, horn at Woodford, Essex. His earliest iuLleafion was a volume of /'Drums (1844). praised by Bulwer and utterly condemned by ittackwood in an unsparing re tww. He also contributed to various periodi cals, in particular to the North. British and the Eduubaryli, critical articles, which, although markod be detached observations, unsatisfactory because of his failure to under stand Work other than his own. It was he who asked Ruskin to send to the Timis the latter's famous letter in defense of the Pre-Raphaelites. and he wrote for the G, nut an essay on Macbctli and verse, including The 'Seasons. now-over, ine was not much (Imperiled with the Pre-liaphaelite movement. and latterly at lo.,st held uu e,,mpli nientary opinion of Rossetti. lip was at one time a disciple of Tennyson, and in 1850 recovered the of I Memoriam from a cupboard in which it had been left. From 184G to 1866 he was assistant in the printed-book department of the British :Museum. His published verse includes: The .1n//vi in the House (in part, 1854; com plete, 1803; last ed. 1896) : The Unknown, Eros
and Other Odes, L-xxxi. (1877) ; and Poems (in a definitive edition, with a treatise on English metriQai law. 1886; reprinted, 1890, 1894, 1897). Of these, the more pretentious are in narrative form, quite Licking in any unity of interest and at times bathetic. but with fine isolated pas sages, particularly convincing descriptions of natural scenery, set in the mass of context. His triviality and baldness have been perhaps too monotonously dwelt upon by the critics, and the high esteem of eminent contemporaries is not wholly to be disregarded; but his work seems much less remarkable than his rugged and strik ing personality. Of his prose may be mentionl'd Principles in Art (1889; new revised and re arranged ed. 1898). essays reprinted from the James's Gazette, and Religio Poct(c revised and rearranged. 1898). He wrote, also, a memoir of the poet Procter. better known as `Barry Cornwall' 0877). Consult Champneys, Memoirs and Correspondence of Coventry Pat more (London, 1900).