Synopses & Reviews
Offering both familiar poems and some fascinating unfamiliar ones, this anthology contains over 250 poems that deal with Christianity. Ranging from the Anglo-Saxon masterpiece "The Dream of the Rood" to the works of modern poets such as T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Sir John Betjeman, and John Berryman. Davie has chosen works from around the world, including several women poets--such as the Elizabethan Countess of Pembroke and Emily Dickinson--as well as the four men whom he describes as "the masters of the sacred poem in English": George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Christopher Smart, and William Cowper. Stressing the importance of "the plain style" in Christian poetry throughout the ages, Davie also offers a large selection of congregational hymns.
Review
"Davie has ranged widely...including many [poems] by Americans, Scotsmen, and women."--John Updike, The New York Times Book Review
"Davie's anthology will be an active ingredient in the general literary culture for a long time to come."--The Christian Science Monitor
About the Author
About the Editor:
Donald Davie is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in Humanities and English at Vanderbilt University. A distinguished scholar, poet, and literary critic, he is the author of several books, including his Collected Poems.