Thomas Flatman

Flatman, Thomas, poet and miniature painter, was born in London, cir. 1633, and died cir. 1688. He was a barrister of the Inner Temple, but gave most of his time to poetry and painting. He was the author of some Pindaric Odes on the deaths of Prince Rupert, and of Charles II.; and of a prose satire on Richard Cromwell. His Poems & Songs were published in 1674 (3rd edition 1682), and from this volume the following hymns have been transferred to Dr. Martineau's Hymns, 1840, and his Hymns of Praise and Prayer, 1873:— "Awake, my soul, awake, mine eyes " (Morning); “Sweet slumbers, come and chase away" (Evening).

The similarity of these hymns to the Morning and Evening hymns of Bp. Ken suggests the possibility that they may have inspired the latter. Flatman's "Thoughts on Death " also contains the germ of Pope's "Vital Spark," &c, q.v.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)