The Religious Poems of Richard Crashaw

OXFORD GARLANDS

RELIGIOUS POEMS

SELECTED BY

R. M. LEONARD

If any thing delight me for to print

My book, 'tis this; that thou, my God, art in 't.

HERRICK

HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY

1914

OXFORD: HORACE HART

PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PREFATORY NOTE

THE selection of religious poetry for such a volume as this, in which a high standard is aimed at, is a very difficult task. As Professor Palgrave pointed out in The Treasury of Sacred Song, edited for the Oxford University Press twenty-five years ago,

religious poems, hymns in particular, beyond any other modes of poetry, hold a special place in the hearts of men; so closely intertwined with the predilections of childhood, with the memories of the home or the church of our youth, with the voices no longer heard on this side the grave, that they have a charm for us beyond criticism,— -a spell which is none the less irresistible because it is not cast over us by their own proper magic.

I have excluded hymns and poems which, although not written for the purpose, have been pressed into the service of the churches, and this explains the absence of Cowper and other truly religious poets. Carols have also been omitted, as they would require a volume to themselves. A few poems which might possibly be looked for in this selection have been reserved for other volumes in the series.

My aim has been to find room for poems which the most fastidious taste, poetical or religious, would approve. That these poems are mostly the work of those who have long since received their reward is no reflection on more modern poets, and I am fortunate in having obtained permission to reprint copyright poems which will bear comparison with the best in the book.

A 2

271934

PREFATORY NOTE

Some explanation of the arrangement of the poems may be desirable. In the first place are poems addressed to God and to Jesus Christ, whose nativity is naturally followed by poems on childhood; poems on the Cross and the Resurrection precede others on providence, and love and faith; sin and sorrow are followed by prayer and praise, and then are given poems on certain worthies of the Christian faith; next are poems on night, and the lessons of nature lead through Wordsworth's sonnet to the philosophy of age. It is then a short step for mortals to death, judgement, and the life hereafter, the fine passage from Browning ending this necessarily brief survey of religious experience. Where it has been thought desirable or found necessary to print only a portion of the poem the fact is duly stated in the notes.

My acknowledgements are due to the Poet Laureate, Mr. Bridges, and to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., for their kindness in permitting the use of his poems, to Mr. Herbert Paul for Digby Mackworth Dolben's work, to Mrs. Meynell for her poems, to Mrs. Macanally and to Lady Victoria Buxton for the Hon. Roden Noel's Toy Cross, to Messrs. Bell for Coventry Patmore's Toys, to Messrs. Chatto & Windus for Stevenson's Celestial Surgeon (and to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons in respect of American rights), and to Mr. Wilfrid Meynell for the two poems by Francis Thompson.

R. M. LEONARD,