an English poet, now best known for the influence on Elizabethan writing of the Choice of Emblemes that he compiled. Whitney's reputation depends upon his celebrated emblem book. The poems are for the most part in six-line stanzas; a few are in quatrains or are even two-line epigrams. They are addressed to Whitney's kinsmen or friends, or to a notable contemporary, and give information of persons, places, and things rarely to be found elsewhere.
