English metaphysical poet celebrated for intensely devotional verse and baroque imagery. A convert to Catholicism, Crashaw wrote poems that push language toward ecstasy, tenderness, and excess—especially in his treatments of saints and sacramental devotion.
Read by Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading) & Alcott (see Alcott's Library)
1 title in the Cabinet
Full title: Steps to the temple, the delights of the muses and Carmen Deo Nostro
The Dial's edition: 1670
A landmark of English devotional lyric, blending baroque intensity with sacramental imagination; the volume situates poetic craft as a spiritual discipline, where affect and form become vehicles of praise.
