Campion was a poet of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He wrote Latin as well as English poetry and argued that English poets should avoid rhyme and the stressed-unstressed system of meter. He preferred the classic poetic system of building poetic measures based on the length of the syllables. He did not follow his own advise very consistently, and few poets have followed his system.He is most famous for his lyric poetry, which he and others set to music. His songs were sung in masques and also were accompanied on the lute, which was similar to the guitar.