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The son of a solicitor, he was born either in 1699 or in 1700 at Aberglasney , in Carmarthenshire. He was sent to Westminster School and was destined for the law, but on his father's death he began to study painting. He wandered about South Wales, sketching and occasionally painting portraits. In 1726 his first poem, Grongar Hill, appeared in a miscellany published by Richard Savage, the poet. It was an irregular ode in the so-called Pindaric style, but Dyer entirely rewrote it into a loose measure of four cadences, and printed it separately in 1727. It had an immediate and brilliant success. Grongar Hill, as it now stands, is a short poem of only 150 lines, describing in language of much freshness and picturesque charm the view from a hill overlooking the poets native vale of Towy . A visit to Italy bore fruit in The Ruins of Rome (1740), a descriptive piece in about 600 lines of Miltonic blank verse.

Dyer was ordained an Anglican priest in 1741, and, held the livings of Calthorp in Leicestershire, Belchford (1751), Coningsby (1752), and Kirby-on-Bane (1756), the last three being Lincolnshire parishes. He married, in 1741, a Miss Ensor, said to be descended from the brother of William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 ( O. May 3, 1616 ( N. has a reputation as the greatest writer the English language has ever known. Indeed, the English Renaissance has often been called "the age of Shakespe.

In 1757 Dyer published his longest work, the didactic blank-verse epic, The Fleece, in four books, dealing with the tending of sheep, the shearing and preparation of the wool, weaving, and trade in woollen manufactures. The town took no interest in it, and Dodsley jokingly prophesied that Mr Dyer would be buried in woollen clothing. He died at Coningsby of consumption. His poems were collected by Dodsley in 1770, and by Edward ThomasEdward Thomas ( March 3, 1878 April 9, 1917) was one of the best-known English poets of World War I. Thomas was of Welsh extraction but was born in London. He was educated at Battersea Grammar School, St. Paul's School and Lincoln College, Oxford. He was in 1903 fcr the Welsh Library, vol. iv.

Text originally from 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica