Poetry As Prayer: The Hound of Heaven

by Robert G. Waldron, Francis Thompson

Book by Waldron, Robert G., Thompson, Francis

139 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Robert Waldron holds a B.A. in English, an M.Ed., and an M.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts. He has taught English Literature and Language at Boston Latin School—Boston’s first public school, for 33 years.

Waldron is the recipient of four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; in 1997 he also received first prize from the Catholic Press Association for the best article on spirituality written for a periodical. In addition to scholarly articles, he has written several books including: Poetry as Prayer: the Hound of Heaven, The Lost Diary of Francis Thompson Poetry as Prayer: Thomas Merton, and A Man of a Certain Tread.

Waldron is intrigued by the life inside abbeys, seminaries, and convents, places where people have given up a worldly life to pursue something greater. His novel, Blue Hope takes place in a Cistercian abbey; in this remote New England setting, John Highet comes face to face with the great poet Ethan Seegard, now a reclusive monk at the abbey.