Poetry for the Soul: 700 Best Loved Christian Poems

Mary Batchelor makes three assumptions: she wants to present poetry that has enduring qualities (depth of thought and a journeyman's sound and metrical craft); it addresses the want of the Christian for solid verse; and it restricts (or excerpts) the verse to roughly a page in length. There is no chaff in this book. What a pleasure to open up a book that sets itself up as a trite-free zone. Whenever the word "Christian" is in the title of a collection of verse (and I must admit I often succumb to the temptation picking up volumes) I gird myself for the inevitable medley of pedantic and patronizing - sing-song and hackneyed verse that gives testamony to far greater faith than education.The first surprise is this anthology number and variety of authors she selects. The book is organized topically and each section draws on poets of the middle age, 17th and 18th Century, Romantic, Victorian, 20th Century, English and American. It was refreshing to read a formal sonate opposit a free-verse piece.My favorite poets were well represented: William Blake, George Herbert, Robert Browning, Johns Donne and Milton, Emile Dickenson, Shakespeare, TSElliot, Dickenson, Edward Taylor, G. M. Hopkins, and John Greenleaf Whittier. But then there were a number of surprises: Charles Wesley and John Newton (I would not have thought of hymn writers - a nice touch); but then John Updike (!) J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Graves who I wouldn't expect in a book of Christian verse (they belong). But most satisfying were poets I half knew and come to know better: Herrick, Langland, Alice Meyness Francis Quarles and Christina Rossetti. And G. K. Chesterton is proof of my ignorance - her selection bids me to repent and read more of this very ironic author. I was gratified to see the 20th Century well: Steve Turner, Evangeline Paterson are two that stand out. That this book, just published in 1995 is already out of print says something. Nevertheless, for those with a poetic jewel in their memory that touched them in their past will probably find it in this work.