Oakes, Urian

Oakes, Urian( c.1631–81),
Massachusetts poet and clergyman, born in England, graduated from Harvard (1649), returned to his native country to teach and preach, but settled in New England (1671) because of his staunch Puritan orthodoxy. His one published poem, an Elegie (1677) on Thomas Shepard, has been highly praised, as has the prose in his various published sermons. While pastor of the Church of Cambridge, he was also acting president of Harvard (1675–80), and he is accused of having allowed the near extinction of the college.