Hearing God in Poetry: Fifty Poems for Lent and Easter

by Richard Harries

Overview

From Yehuda Amichai and W. H. Auden to Phyllis Wheatley and Walt Whitman, Hearing God in Poetry invites you to take a closer look at fifty great poems by some of the finest poets in the English language. Some are well known, some deserve to be better known, but all say something distinctive that will lift your spirit.

This beautiful Lent book for 2022 offers six poems for every week from Ash Wednesday, leading up to Holy Week, with ten poems specially chosen for Easter. A short reflection from Richard Harries accompanies each poet and the poem, drawing out their spiritual insights and how they communicate God's presence.

Hearing God in Poetry is an ideal Lent book for 2022 for poetry lovers and anyone interested in how some of the world’s finest poets have expressed faith in their work. This book of daily readings will introduce you to some wonderful poetry for Lent and Easter, and give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of these brilliant works of literature. It will also help expand your spirituality to see God's presence in the world around you as you prepare for Easter.

Full of riches, Hearing God in Poetry is a book that you will want to turn to time and time again - whether during Lent or in any other season of the year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780281086290
Publisher:	SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge)
Publication date:	11/18/2021
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	785,004
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Richard Harries is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Professor of Theology at King’s College, London. On his retirement as Bishop of Oxford (1987-2006) he was made a life peer (Lord Harries of Pentregarth). He is the author of many critically acclaimed books, including Hearing God in Poetry (SPCK, 2021), Seeing God in Art (SPCK, 2022) and his moving autobiography The Shaping of a Soul: a life taken by surprise (John Hunt 2023). Art and the Beauty of God (Continuum, 1993) was selected as book of the year by Anthony Burgess in The Observer. A much loved voice on BBC’s Today programme, he has contributed to ‘Thought for the Day’ for more than 50 years.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction xv

Ash Wednesday to Lent, week 1: Preparation

Ash Wednesday Surview Thomas Hardy 3

Thursday King Lear William Shakespeare 6

Friday The poor parson Geoffrey Chaucer 9

Saturday Lachrimae amantis Geoffrey Hill 13

Week 1 Testing

Monday Batter my heart John Donne 19

Tuesday God moves in a mysterious way William Cowper 22

Wednesday Twice Christina Rossetti 26

Thursday The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 30

Friday In Memoriam Alfred Lord Tennyson 34

Saturday In memory of W. B. Yeats W. H. Auden 37

Week 2 Grace

Monday I count the moments of my mercies up Elizabeth Jennings 41

Tuesday The quality of sprawl Les Murray 44

Wednesday If thou must love me … Elizabeth Barrett Browning 48

Thursday The moor R. S. Thomas 51

Friday The kingdom of God Francis Thompson 54

Saturday Prayer Carol Ann Duffy 57

Week 3 Glory in the ordinary

Monday Miracles Walt Whitman 61

Tuesday And that is your glory Yehuda Amichai 63

Wednesday The glory Edward Thomas 66

Thursday Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey William Wordsworth 69

Friday Jubilate Agno Christopher Smart 73

Saturday Ode on a Grecian urn John Keats 76

Week 4 Parental love

Monday Oh antic God Lucille Clifton 83

Tuesday The almond tree Jon Stallworthy 85

Wednesday Walking away C. Day-Lewis 91

Thursday Mother to son Langston Hughes 94

Friday Digging Seamus Heaney 97

Saturday Taking a chance Richard Harries 100

Week 5 Being fully human

Monday As kingfishers catch fire Gerard Manley Hopkins 105

Tuesday On imagination Phyllis Wheatley 108

Wednesday An Essay on Man Alexander Pope 111

Thursday Eve remembering Toni Morrison 116

Friday One foot in Eden still Edwin Muir 118

Saturday Who am I? Dietrich Bonhoeffer 121

Holy Week: Death

Monday When my time come Khadijah Ibrahim 127

Tuesday The trees are down Charlotte Mew 131

Wednesday The father, the son Roger McGough 135

Maundy Thursday The Dream of the Rood Early English anonymous 138

Good Friday To the good thief Saunders Lewis 142

Holy Saturday No coward soul is mine Emily Brontë 145

Easter and into the new life in Christ

Easter Day Piers Plowman William Langland 151

Monday of Easter Week Easter Edmund Spenser 155

Tuesday of Easter Week I saw him standing Ann Griffiths 158

Wednesday of Easter Week Easter George Herbert 161

Thursday of Easter Week O Sapientia Malcolm Guite 165

Friday of Easter Week Shadows D. H. Lawrence 168

Saturday of Easter Week Sailing to Byzantium William Butler Yeats 171

Second Sunday of Easter This world is not conclusion Emily Dickinson 175

Monday Signs Piers Plowright 178

Tuesday Little Gidding T. S. Eliot 181

Notes 185

Editorial Reviews

Hearing God in Poetry is a lovely Lent book for 2022 from Richard Harries, that reflects on how some of the best-loved poems in the English language communicate a sense of God's presence.

From the Publisher