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Subject Index - Faith and Religion

This particular categrory is at once the easiest and the most difficult to describe. The main difficulties are that it is a personal and heartfelt subject for most of the world (and likewise, all of the included poets), and therefore one in which I must tread lightly, and that a major shortcoming of the collection is that the devotional contents are focused almost entirely on Christianity.

That is not intended to send any message other than that, since this database is primarily in English, and the timeframe it covers is limited by copyright, what has been donated and what was available in the public domain simply is what it is. If you have the time and inclination to help us supplement with other materials and provenance, and translation where needed, and have expertise in the area, your assistance would be warmly welcomed.

That being said, we must also acknowledge that, particlarly among English poets, some of the contributions here are by significant religious figures. John Donne is a notable example.

Among the best examples included here might be the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poetry was popularized by his good friend Robert Bridges. Bridges became Poet Laureate

For simplicity, I have always liked Christina Rossetti's conversation with God in Up-Hill.

Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable.
- Carl Sandburg

1. Ode by Joseph Addison
   Th'unwearied sun from day to day
   Does his Creator's pow'r display,


2. Nearer My God to Thee by Sarah Flower Adams


3. No Coward Soul Is Mine by Emily Bronte


4. 'There Is No God,' the Wicked Saith by Arthur Hugh Clough


5. Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
   Thoughts to a child on what his life will hold.


6. Olney Hymns by William Cowper


7. Chartless by Emily Dickinson


8. Death Be Not Proud by John Donne
   Death's power is shown to be empty.

9. Batter my heart, three-personed God by John Donne


10. He Is Our Peace by William Byron Forbush


11. The Collar by George Herbert
    On going one's own way


12. The Flower by George Herbert


13. The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes
    Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul


14. Thou Art Indeed Just, O Lord by Gerard Manley Hopkins


15. God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins


16. Doors of the Temple by Aldous Huxley
    On worshipping God, not the gates that lead to His house.


17. Amazing Grace by John Newton


18. The Dying Christian To His Soul by Alexander Pope


19. Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti


20. The Burning Babe by Robert Southwell


21. The New Birth by Jones Very
    Comparing the old life to the new.