Thomas Parnell (1679-1718) Graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. In 1702 he became a Canon of St. Patrick’s, and in 1706 Archdeacon of Clogher. Friend of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, he spent time in London where he contributed to the Spectator and to Pope's translation of the Iliad. Left London to become Vicar of Finglass when he resigned the archdeaconry in 1716. He is one of the so-called Graveyard poets. Most of his verse was published posthumously.
"His most famous poem, 'A Night Piece on Death'... may have initiated the phase of graveyard verse which was carried on in Young's 'Night Thoughts' and Blair's 'Grave'.--Bonamy Dobrée, English literature in the early eighteenth century 1700-1740. (1959)