Although Michael Dennis Browne is English born, he considers himself primarily an American poet. Not only did he become naturalized as an American citizen in 1978, but it was when he was living in Finland, teaching English as a foreign language, that, introduced to contemporary American poetry by a friend, Chester Anderson, and via Donald Hall's Penguin anthology, Contemporary American Poetry, he became fascinated with certain American poets, particularly with Theodore Roethke, James Wright, and that poetry which has since come to be associated with "the deep image."

Browne was born in Walton-on-Thames, England, to Edgar Dennis and Winifred Browne. His later experiments as a librettist as well as the often consciously musical structure of his lyric poetry may stem in part from the musical inclinations of his father, who was an amateur organist and choirmaster in the local Catholic church. At Hull University Browne studied foreign languages and...