Robert Wild

Robert Wild (or Wylde; 1617–1659) was an English clergyman and poet, known for his wit and controversial writings. Despite his presbyterian views, Wild held royalist in political beliefs and was eventually evicted from the position in 1662. John Dryden called him 'the Wither of the city.' He wrote extensively, often anonymously and controversially.

Life Robert Wild was born to Robert Wild, a shoemaker of St Ives, Huntingdonshire. After a private education at St Ives, he was admitted as a sizar to St John's College, Cambridge, on 26 January 1632, and was made a scholar in 1634, graduating B.A. in 1636, M.A. in 1639, B.D. (at Oxford) in 1642, D.D. (at Cambridge, per literas regias) in 1661.

As a youth, Wild held strong Puritan beliefs, and was appointed to the living of Aynhoe, Northamptonshire, by order of the House of Commons on 22 July 1646. Wild's reputation for his wit and controversial views gave his friend a renowned theologian Richard Baxter so much discomfort that he visited Aynhoe, intending to rebuke him. However, after having sat in the corner of the church, and listened to his sermon, he changed his mind and instead asked Wild to rebuke him sharply, for having listened to the reports! representing a middle path between the eclectic Marinism of the previous generation and the new classicism of Waller and Denham. Gosse selects Wild's "Alas, poor scholar, whither wilt thou go?" as his most pleasing work, writing that "It is a curious picture of life under the Commonwealth, and it is written in a romantic and singular measure, with great earnestness of feeling; among the literature of the age I know nothing that quite resembles it."