AN ANTHOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS POETRY

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 1962

Such a collection of poetry as this will provide no rhymed couplet or tidy verse for the pious preached to use to shore up his inevitable and prosaic orthodoxy with sweet and soothing sentiment, easily remembered. There may indeed be those who would say that some of this religious poetry is not religious at all. But they could not hold to this in the face of the editors announced intention of presenting poems which at least, positively or negatively, implied the presence of a God is whose image man was created and to whom man was a concern. Such a poem might well express an estrangement from God, or even doubt the existence of God. Indeed, a man's struggle might well be addressed, not outward to God but inward to himself. The agnostic poet, worried about his agnosticism, still writes religious poems. Even the atheist who writes about not believing in God, may write religious poetry. Such poets as these find representation in this anthology. Both the affirmation and the negation of faith are necessary for a true dialectic of the faith of our times. The religious life explain in dialogue or it doesn't exist at all. So here we find poetry by Hopkinn, T. S. Eliot, Aiken, Cummings, Robert Penn Warren, W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Yeats, Tate, Thomas Hardy and many others, known and not so well known. It is good to have such a collection as this to read it is to stretch both the mind and the heart. Show in department as well.

Pub Date: March 25, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION