Robert Pollok

Robert Pollok (1798–1827) was a Scottish poet and Presbyterian minister, remembered chiefly for his long religious poem *The Course of Time* (1827). Born in Renfrewshire, he studied at the University of Glasgow and later trained for the ministry. Pollok served as a probationer in the Church of Scotland, but ill health limited his pastoral prospects. While living in London he completed *The Course of Time*, an ambitious blank-verse meditation on Christian doctrine, human destiny, and judgment that gained wide popularity after his death. Pollok died of tuberculosis in 1827, aged 28, and was buried at Bunhill Fields.