Metaphysical poets Flecknoe" and Joseph Addison, in quoting him, singled out the poetry of George Herbert as providing a flagrant example. There is no scholarly consensus regarding which English poets or poems fit within the Metaphysical genre. In his initial use of the term, Johnson quoted just three poets: Abraham Cowley, John Donne, and John Cleveland. Colin Burrow, writing for the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", singles out John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Crashaw as 'central figures', while naming many more, all or part of whose work has been identified as sharing its characteristics. Herbert Grierson’s "Metaphysical
Richard Leigh (poet) Richard Leigh (poet) Richard Leigh (1650–1728) was an English poet of gentry stock. His work is regarded as metaphysical poetry. He engaged in a pamphlet dispute with John Dryden. He was the younger son of Sir Edward Leigh (1603–1671), of Rushall, Staffordshire (a scion of the ancient family of West Hall, High Legh, Cheshire and a cousin of the Lords Leigh), and Elizabeth Talbot (died 1707), a relative of the Earls of Shrewsbury. In 1666, aged sixteen, he entered Queen's College, Oxford. Sources rumor that, after university, Leigh left Oxford for London and became an actor in the Duke of