His translation of the Fourth Book of the AEneid, imitated perhaps from the Italian version of the Cardinal de Medici, is said to be the first specimen of blank verse in English.

How slow its progress was is proved by Johnson's remarks upon the versification of Milton.[23] Thus in his blank verse Surrey was the forerunner of Milton, and in his rhymed pentameter couplet one of the heralds of Dryden and Pope.
SIR THOMAS MORE .-- In a bird's-eye view of literature, the division into poetry and prose is really a distinction without a difference.

They are the same body in different clothing, at labor and at festivity--in the working suit and in the court costume.

With this remark we usher upon the literary scene Thomas More, in many respects one of the most remarkable men of his age--scholar, jurist, statesman, gentleman, and Christian; and, withal, a martyr to his principles of justice and faith.

In a better age, he would have retained the highest honors: it is not to his discredit that in that reign he was brought to the block.
He was born in 1480.