Poems Every Catholic Should Know

This anthology provides some of the finest Christian verse written during the second millennium of Christianity.

All of the great ones are here: Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Dante and Chaucer from the High Middle Ages; Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and John Donne from the Reformation; English and American Romantics such as Browning and Whittier; late nineteenth-century mystics like Dickenson and Hopkins, as well the great converts of that period like Newman and Chesterton; and, T. S. Eliot speaking out of and into our own times.

A conscious attempt was made to meet both the standards of academia and the tastes and sensibilities of the faithful.

The selections are arranged chronologically to serve also as a history of verse.

Brief biographical and anecdotal introductions reveal the varied relationships of the poets with each other and with the trials and tribulations of their day.