Before the Door of God

An Anthology of Devotional Poetry

Jay Hopler, Kimberly Johnson

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780300163056
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Religious Poetry
• Index: Literature

A diverse and imaginative selection of works from the long tradition of devotional poetry in English

Before the Door of God traces the development of devotional English-language poetry from its origins in ancient hymnody to its current twenty-first-century incarnations. The poems in this volume demonstrate not only that devotional poetry—poetry that speaks to the divine—remains in vigorous practice but also that the tradition reaches back to the very origins of poetry in English.

Featuring the work of poets over a three-thousand-year period, Before the Door of God places the devotional lyric in its cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts. The volume traces the various influences on this tradition and identifies features that persist in devotional lyric poetry across centuries, cultures, and stylistic differences. To scholars, literary professionals, and general readers who find delight in fine poetry, this anthology offers much to contemplate and discuss.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Editors’ Preface
• “A Heauenly Poesie”: The Devotional Lyric
• A Note On The Texts
• Part One: The Ancient Origins Of The Devotional Lyric
• Part Two: Early Christian Lyrics Through The Fifteenth Century
• Part Three: Psalm Translations Of The English Renaissance: The Bible As Art
• Part Four: The Flourishing Of The Devotional Lyric In The Post-Reformation Era
• Part Five: The Poetic Sublime: The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries
• Part Six: The Devotional Lyric In The Modern Era
• Part Seven: The Twentieth-Century Devotional Lyric After Modernism
• Credits
• Index