A Book of Religious Verse.

by Helen Gardner

The poems, which emphasize man's response and commitment to the revelations of various faiths, are drawn from all periods of English literature

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Helen Louise Gardner, Professor of English Literature with distinguished critical work on John Donne and T.S. Eliot. First woman to hold the Merton Professor of English Literature chair at Oxford (1966-1975).
Wikipedia

Reviews

[J. Alfred · Rating 4 out of 5]

The famous guys are famous for a reason, man. In a book of 200 poems, it's generally still true that the startling ones are the ones you've read a bunch of times. I'll list the big'ns (by my account-- and taking into consideration that we are talking religious poems-- thus Chaucer and Yeats aren't All That Big) and the page totals Gardner gives them. The book as a whole has 337 pages, so pretty weighty on a page-per-poem basis. But you can think of the page count for each poet as: this poet has produced, by one measure, x/337 of the memorable Christian poems in history.

Donne, 11 pgs. Yeah, this guy is worth reading. It's like he's a living voice or some such thing.
Herbert, 12 pgs. Gentle and thought producing. Holy and conducive of holiness.
Milton, 10 pgs. There is no better devotional poem in the language than On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. Just Sayin
Vaughan, 12 pgs. Really good in short bursts.
Smart, 10 pgs. Actually astonishing poetry from the occasionally crazy person, in addition to For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry, for which we all owe him much love. (For he can spraggle upon waggle.)
Tennyson, 6 pgs. Look. I think In Memorium is a great poem.
Browning, 6 pgs. It's a scandal Elizabeth Barrett Browning didn't make the list, but she is a big fan of her husband's poetry and would approve his inclusion over her own.
Hopkins, 14 pgs. The entire Wreck of the Deutschland! Worth it!
Eliot, 6 pgs. Is anyone sure what this guy is really doing? Not me! But it sure sounds good much of the time.

Anyway read these poems and feel some peace in your soul.