The first English poet learned his art in a dream

Cædmon is an Anglo-Saxon poet from the second half of the 7th century whose story was reported by the monk Bede the Venerable. A simple illiterate servant at the Abbey of Whitby, he allegedly received the gift of composing verses during a nocturnal vision of divine inspiration. Of his prolific work, only Cædmon's Hymn remains today, a praise in nine verses written in Old English.