Marian Poem-Prayers in the Modern Age

That there are poems which are also prayers has long been known. That the Virgin Mary has been the focus of so many poems in the British Isles has perhaps not been properly appreciated until now. Jean Ward’s beautiful study of Marian poems by writers as distinct as T. S. Eliot and R. S. Thomas, Elizabeth Jennings and Geoffrey Hill, along with an outlier such as Thom Gunn, is an eloquent and much-needed contribution to the study of religion and literature. – Kevin Hart, Jo Rae Wright University Distinguished Professor in the School of Divinity, Duke University, USA
Jean Ward has written an insightful study of the rise and fall—and the rise again—of Marian devotion and its poetic production in England. Ward assesses the demise of Mary in Reformation theological poetics, and her re-emergence in some twentieth century English poets, suggesting a theological unease about Mary’s place in modern religious representation, from Anglicans like W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot, to Catholic converts like David Jones, Sebastian Barker and Hilary Davies, to the prominent cradle Catholic, Elizabeth Jennings. Ward offers readers a way to chart Marian poetry in English writers through the centuries. * Mark Bosco, S.J., Georgetown University, USA *

Jean Ward is Professor of Literary Studies in English at Gdansk University, Poland.

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