Christians throughout the ages have written poetry as a way to commune with and teach about God, communicating rich truths and enduring beauty through their art. These poems, when read devotionally, provide a unique way for Christians to deepen their spiritual insight and experience.
In this collection of over 90 poems by poets such as Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, and over 30 more, literary expert Leland Ryken introduces readers to the best of the best in devotional poetry, providing commentary that helps them see and appreciate not only the literary beauty of these poems but also the spiritual truths they contain. Literary-inclined readers and first-time poetry readers alike will relish this one-of-a-kind anthology carefully compiled to help them encounter God in fresh ways.
“For most modern people, poetry is hard to read and not immediately rewarding. And yet, it is precisely that difficulty and the contemplation that it requires that makes reading poetry such a valuable exercise in a world of distractions. Leland Ryken has produced a volume that will aid Christians, even those not well versed in poetry, in delighting in the rich history of devotional poetry.”
O. Alan Noble, Assistant Professor of English, Oklahoma Baptist University; author, Disruptive Witness
272 pages
View an excerpt here.
Table of Contents:
Editor's Introduction
- Caedmon's Hymn
- The Dream of the Rood
- O What Their Joy and Their Glory Must Be
- Canticle of the Sun
- Sunset on Calvary
- I Sing of a Maiden
- Hand in Hand We Shall Take
- Leave Me, O Love, Which Reachest but to Dust
- Most Glorious Lord of Life
- O Gracious Shepherd
- When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes
- That Time of Year Thou Mayest in Me Behold
- Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds Admit Impediments
- Poor Soul, the Center of My Sinful Earth
- The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strained
- Yet If His Majesty
- Thou Hast Made Me, and Shall Thy Work Decay?
- As Due by Many Titles I Resign
- Oh My Black Soul
- This Is My Play's Last Scene
- At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners
- Death, Be Not Proud
- Spit in My Face, You Jews
- Batter My Heart
- Wilt Thou Love God as He Thee?
- A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior
- Aaron
- Redemption
- Prayer
- Virtue
- The Pulley
- The Agony
- Love
- The Twenty-Third Psalm
- The Elixir
- Easter
- The Collar
- Sunday
- He Bore Our Griefs
- His Savior's Words, Going to the Cross
- His Litany to the Holy Spirit
- On Time
- How Soon Hath Time
- Lady That in the Prime of Earliest Youth
- When Faith and Love
- Avenge, O Lord, Thy Slaughtered Saints
- When I Consider How My Light Is Spent
- Methought I Saw My Late Espouséd Saint
- Greatly Instructed I Shall Hence Depart
- Verses upon the Burning of our House
- Poverty
- Peace
- Easter Hymn
- The Dawning
- The Waterfall
- They Are All Gone into the World of Light
- When in Mid-Air, the Golden Trump Shall Sound
-
Veni, Creator Spiritus ("Come, Creator Spirit")
- The Spacious Firmament on High
- When Rising from the Bed of Death
- The Dying Christian to His Soul
- Huswifery
- Infinity, When All Things It Beheld
- The Resignation
- The Lamb
- And Did Those Feet
- The Destruction of Sennacherib
- Lines Written in Early Spring
- Earth Has Not Anything to Show More Fair
- To a Waterfowl
- The Snow-Storm
- Strong Son of God, Immortal Love
- Crossing the Bar
- In the Bleak Midwinter
- Good Friday
- Up-Hill
- Pied Beauty
- Spring
- The Windhover
- God’s Grandeur
- O World Invisible, We View Thee
- A Prayer in Spring
- Journey of the Magi
- Two Poems on Death and Immortality
- Nature as God's Revelation
- Sunday Worship
- Christmas Day
- Nature as a Religious Experience
- The Consolations of Providence
- Certainty of Faith
- Our Only Secure Home
Biographical Notes
Sources and Acknowledgments
Scripture Index
Person Index
Soul in Paraphrase, The: A Treasury of Classic Devotional Poems is in the following collections: