Selected Poems

One of the greatest English poets of the mid-seventeenth century, Richard Crashaw is still widely neglected and misunderstood. Published to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his birth, this new selection of his work aims to help restore him to his rightful place. Skilfully and sensitively arranged by Robin Holloway, Professor Emeritus of Musical Composition at the University of Cambridge, this selection unfolds in a sequence of movements and intermezzi, Crashaw's secular verse forming a lively counterpoint to his beautiful devotional poetry. The selection also includes some of Crashaw's Latin verse, with wholly new English translations. '[Crashaw exhibits] a deliberate conscious perversity of language… like that of the amazing, impressive interior of St. Peter's.' T.S. Eliot