But Men Loved Darkness rather than Light

But Men Loved Darkness rather than Light

By Richard Crashaw 1612–1649 Richard Crashaw
    The world’s light shines, shine as it will,
The world will love its darkness still.
I doubt though when the world’s in hell,
It will not love its darkness half so well.
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Poet Richard Crashaw 1612–1649

POET’S REGION England

SCHOOL / PERIOD 17th Century

Subjects Faith & Doubt, Religion

Poetic Terms Epigram, Couplet

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Biography

The intense and intimate depiction of Richard Crashaw that prefaces his English volumes of poetry (Steps to the Temple, 1646, enlarged 1648) is also a candlelit window that opens on his soul. To look through this window is to discover Crashaw in the state of unruffled devotion which is presented as the hub of his poetic genius.

Reader, we stile his Sacred Poems, Stepps to the Temple, and aptly, for in the Temple of God, under . . .

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Poems by Richard Crashaw

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SUBJECT Faith & Doubt, Religion

POET’S REGION England

SCHOOL / PERIOD 17th Century

Poetic Terms Epigram, Couplet

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Originally appeared in Poetry magazine.

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