ABSTRACT
Durfey's published verse is varied, voluminous and of some interest as an illustration of the public subjects and the styles which attracted verse writers in the later Stuart and Williamite reigns. He rarely or never writes poetry about his private feelings. But none of it is much good. Durfey is too unselfcritical a technician to be able to conclude a poem decisively, swing the rhythms, cut text in order to improve it, insist on only perfect rhymes, vary tone or point of view or handling so to achieve a more complex meaning or greater pleasure for the reader. The present survey, therefore, is only that - a survey. Anything more evaluative would be labour wasted.
