Poly-Olbion

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The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598.

The poem is divided into thirty songs, written in iambic hexameter, consisting in total of almost 15,000 lines of verse. Drayton intended to compose a further part to cover Scotland, but no part of this work is know to have survived. Each song describes between one and three counties, describing their topography, traditions and histories. Copies were illustrated with maps of each county, drawn by William Hole, whereon places were depicted anthropomorphically.

The first book was accompanied by historical summaries written by John Selden. The work is almost never read as a whole, but is an important source for the period.