John Quarles

John Quarles (1624 or 1625–1665) was an English poet. Life One of the eighteen children of Francis Quarles, Quarles may have been born in Essex in 1624. He was educated under the care of Archbishop James Ussher. Quarles matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, on 9 February 1643, but does not seem to have taken a degree. During the English Civil War, Quarles joined the Royalist cause and served as a soldier at the garrison at Oxford, England. After the Parliamentarian victory, Quarles was first imprisoned and later banished from England. While in banishment in Flanders he wrote the poems contained in his first published volume, Fons Lachrymarum. Quarles was back in England in 1648, but his "occasions beyond sea" compelled him to leave again in 1649. The date of his final return to England is unknown.