16th-century English poets

Sir John Davies (16 April 1569 (baptised) – 8 December 1626) was an English poet, lawyer, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1621.

Leonard Cox (or Coxe) (c. 1495 – c. 1549) was an English humanist, author of the first book in English on rhetoric.

Richard Latewar (1560–1601) was an English churchman and academic, known as a neo-Latin poet.

Ulpian Fulwell (1545/6 – 1584/5/6) was an English Renaissance theatre playwright, satirist and poet.

Josuah Sylvester (1563 – 28 September 1618) was an English poet.

Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (19 November 1563 – 13 July 1626), second son of Sir Henry Sidney, was a statesman of Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

John Milton (1562–1647) was an English composer and father of poet John Milton.

Richard Barnfield (1574 – 1620) was an English poet.

Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland KB (24 January 1602 – 12 February 1666), styled Lord le Despenser between 1624 and 1628, was an English nobleman, politician, and writer.

John Taylor (24 August 1578 – 1653) was an English poet who dubbed himself "The Water Poet".

John Rastell (or Rastall) (c. 1475 – 1536) was an English printer, author, member of parliament, and barrister.

Nicholas Grimald (or Grimoald) (1519–1562) was an English poet and dramatist.

Dr Alexander Barclay (c. 1476 – 10 June 1552) was an English/Scottish poet.

William Percy (1574–1648), English poet and playwright, was the third son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland (c.1532–1585), and his wife Katharine Neville (1545/6–1596).

Richard Hathwaye (fl. 1597 - 1603), was an English dramatist.

Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (née Sidney; 27 October 1561 – 25 September 1621) was one of the first English women to achieve a major reputation for her poetry and literary patronage.

John Bracegirdle (died 1613-1614), was an English poet.

Serjeant John Hoskins (1 March 1566 – 27 August 1638) was an English poet, scholar of Greek, lawyer, judge and politician.

John Sandford or Sanford (1565? – 1629) was an English clergyman and academic, known as a grammarian of the Romance languages.

John Weever (1576–1632) was an English antiquary and poet.

Giles Fletcher, the Elder (c. 1548–1611) was an English poet and diplomat, member of the English Parliament.

William Vallans (fl. 1578–1590) was an English poet.

William Cornysh the Younger (also spelled Cornyshe or Cornish) (1465 – October 1523) was an English composer, dramatist, actor, and poet.

Henry Constable (1562 – 9 October 1613) was an English poet, known particularly for Diana, one of the first English sonnet sequences.

Robert Southwell (c. 1561 – 21 February 1595), also Saint Robert Southwell, was an English Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order.

Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.

Sir Thomas Overbury (baptized 1581 – 14 September 1613) was an English poet and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalous trial.

Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, de jure 13th Baron Latimer and 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke KB PC (/fʊlk ˈɡrɛvɪl/; 3 October 1554 – 30 September 1628), known before 1621 as Sir Fulke Greville, was an Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1581 and 1621, when he was raised to the peerage.

Robert Copland (fl. 1515), English printer and author, is said to have been a servant of William Caxton, and certainly worked for Wynkyn de Worde.

Phineas Fletcher (8 April 1582 – 13 December 1650) was an English poet, elder son of Dr Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the Younger.

Abraham Fleming (Flemyng) (c.1552–1607) was an English clergyman, and a prolific writer, translator, contributor to others' texts, editor and poet.

Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer, best known for his work The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman first published in London in 1615.

William Forrest (fl. 1581) was an English Catholic priest and poet.

Nicholas Breton (also Britton or Brittaine) (1545–1626), English poet and novelist, belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton, Essex.

John William Burgon (21 August 1813 – 4 August 1888) was an English Anglican divine who became the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1876.

Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford (5 December 1556 – 5 June 1588) was the daughter of the statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the translator Mildred Cooke.

Anne Howard, Countess of Arundel (née Dacre; 21 March 1557 – 19 April 1630), was an English poet, noblewoman, and religious conspirator.

Anne Locke (Lock, Lok) (1530 – after 1590) was an English poet, translator and Calvinist religious figure.

Anthony Chute (fl. 1590s; died 1595) was an Elizabethan poet and pamphleteer.

Sir Francis Kynaston or Kinaston (1587–1642) was an English lawyer, courtier, poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622.

Geoffrey (then spelt Geffrey) Whitney (c. 1548 – c. 1601) was an English poet, now best known for the influence on Elizabethan writing of the Choice of Emblemes that he compiled.

Arthur Brooke was an English poet who wrote and created various works including The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), considered to be William Shakespeare's chief source for his tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1597).

Thomas Deloney (c. 1543 – April 1600) was an English novelist and balladist.

Anthony Munday (or Monday) (1560? – 10 August 1633) was an English playwright and miscellaneous writer.

Thomas Tusser (1524 – 3 May 1580) was an English poet and farmer, best known for his instructional poem Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, an expanded version of his original title, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, first published in 1557.

Giles Fletcher (also known as Giles Fletcher, The Younger) (1586? – Alderton, Suffolk, 1623) was an English poet chiefly known for his long allegorical poem Christ's Victory and Triumph (1610).

Chidiock Tichborne (after 24 August 1562 – 20 September 1586), erroneously referred to as Charles, was an English conspirator and poet.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, KG (1516/1517 – 19 January 1547), was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry.

William Stevenson (1530–1575) was an English clergyman and presumed playwright of the early English language comedy Gammer Gurton's Needle.

Bartholomew Griffin (fl. 1596) was an English poet.

Sir Benjamin Rudyerd or Rudyard (1572 – 31 May 1658) was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1648.

Henry Lok (Lock, Locke) (1553?-1608?) was an English poet.

Henry Reynolds (1564–1632) was an English schoolmaster poet and literary critic of the seventeenth century.

Robert Hayman (14 August 1575 – November 1629) was a poet, colonist and Proprietary Governor of Bristol's Hope colony in Newfoundland.

Robert Tofte (bap. 1562 – d. Jan. 1620) was an English translator and poet.

William Alabaster (also Alablaster, Arblastier) (27 February 1567 – buried 28 April 1640) was an English poet, playwright, and religious writer.

George Gascoigne (c. 1535 – 7 October 1577) was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier.

Thomas Norton (1532 – 10 March 1584) was an English lawyer, politician, writer of verse.

Nathanael Carpenter (1589–ca.1628) was an English author, philosopher, and geographer.

Charles Bansley (fl. 1548), was an English poet.

Charles Best (1570–1627) was an English poet.

William Warner (1558? – 9 March 1609) was an English poet and lawyer.

Charles Fitzgeoffrey (1576–1638) was an Elizabethan poet and clergyman.

Edmund Elviden (fl. 1570), was an English poet.

Sir Edward Dyer (October 1543 – May 1607) was an English courtier and poet.

Edward Grant (or Graunt; 1540s–1601) was an English classical scholar, Latin poet, and headmaster of Westminster School.

James Mabbe may also be the "I.