The Cavalier Poets:

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) - “Love and Mistresses”; “Flowers”; “On His Book”; “On Julia”; “Upon Princes and Potentates”; “Poems Upon Several Personages of Honour”

Edward Herbert (1582-1648) – “Autobiography”; “De veritate”; “Sonnet of Black Beauty”;

Thomas Carew (1594-1640) – "A Divine Mistress"; "An Elegy on the Death of the Dean of St. Paul's Dr. John Donne"; “Poems”; “To Ben Johnson”

James Shirley (1596-1666) – “Echo ; or, The Unfortunate Lovers”; “Narcissus”; “The School of Compliment”; “The Maid's Revenge”; “Hyde Park”; “The Gamester”; “Poems”; “The Wedding”

Mildmay Fane (1600-1666) – “Otia sacra” [Sacred meditations];

Edmund Waller (1606-1687) – “Poems”; "Panegyrick to my Lord Protector"; "To the King, Upon His Majesty's Happy Return"; “Song. Go Lovely Rose”;

Sir John Suckling (1609-1642) – “Account of Religion by Reason”; “Aglaura”; “The Goblins”

Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) – “The Scholar”; "To Althea. From Prison"; “Lucasta”;

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) – “The Mistress: or, Several Copies of Love Verses”;

Richard Braithwaite (1588-1673) – “Indifferent”;

John Milton (1608-1674):

1625 – Christ's College, Cambridge; December 25, 1629 - "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity".

1632 - M.A. cum laude at Cambridge; poem "On Shakespeare" in the Second Folio; composition of "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

1634 - a masque Comus performed at Ludlow Castle; published 1637.

1637 – Milton’s mother died; friend Edward King died by drowning; the elegy, Lycidas.

1638 – a tour of Europe.

July 1639 – returned home due to rumors of impending civil war in England; composed Epitaphium Damonis, a Latin poem to the memory of his dearest friend.

1640-1642 — King Charles I invaded Scotland, the Long Parliament was convened.  Milton began writing pamphlets on political and religious matters; Of Reformation, Animadversions, Of Prelatical Episcopacy p. in 1641, The Reason for Church Government in February, 1642.

Spring of 1642 – married Mary Powell; “Divorce Tracts”

1643 – Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

1644 – The Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce - "Milton the Divorcer"^; Areopagitica, an oration advocating freedom of the press; a treatise Of Education.

1645 – Tetrachordon and Colasterion; Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin.

1646-48 – Milton’s daughter Anne was born; Milton’s father and his father-in-law died; Milton’s daughter Mary was born.

January 30, 1649 – the public execution of Charles I on; Tenure of Kings and Magistrates was published.

March 1649 – Milton appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues; p. Observations on the Articles of Peace; Eikonoklastes ("Image Breaker") in October, 1649.  

February, 1651 - the Council of State ordered Milton to write a response to Salmasius' Defensio Regia —Defensio pro populo Anglicano was p.

March 1649 – Milton's first son, John, was born.

1652 – Milton lost his sight; the sonnet "When I Consider How My Light is Spent"; a daughter, Deborah was born, and died a few days later; one year-old John died.

1654 – Defensio Secunda, the response for Pierre du Moulin's Regii sanguinis clamor ("Clamor of the King's Blood"). Andrew Marvell had become his assistant.

1655 – Defensio Pro Se ("Defense of Himself").

1656-57 - Milton married Katherine Woodcock; daughter Katherine was born, but by early 1658, both mother and daughter had passed away; the sonnet to their memory "Methought I saw my late espousèd saint."

October, 1658 – Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell died.

1659 – A Treatise of Civil Power; Ready and Easy Way To Establish a Free Commonwealth June, 1659 - Defensio pro populo Anglicano and Eikonoklastes were publicly burned; Milton was arrested and thrown in prison.

May 30, 1660 - King Charles II was restored to the throne.

1663 – remarried Elizabeth Minshull; finishing his life's work, the epic, Paradise Lost.

1667 – Paradise Lost in ten books; reissued in 1668 with additional materials.

1670-1671 – History of Britain; Paradise Regain'd; Samson Agonistes.

1673-1674 – Of True Religion and Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions; second edition of Paradise Lost in twelve books.

November, 1674 – Milton died peacefully of gout and was buried in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate.