American Religious Poems : An Anthology by Harold Bloom

by Bloom, Harold

• ISBN13: 9781931082747
• ISBN10: 193108274X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-05
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA

Summary

"No more profound and intimate expression of America's spiritual life can be found than the work of its poets. From Anne Bradstreet to the beats, from Native American chant and Shaker hymnody to Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, religion and spirituality have always been central to American poetry. In this unique anthology, world-renowned scholar Harold Bloom weaves a tapestry from the many strands of American religious experience and practice: the searching meditations of Puritan pioneers, the evangelical fervor of the Great Awakenings, the mystical currents of transcendentalism, the diverse influences of the world religions that have taken root in modern America." "Spanning four centuries and more than 200 poets, American Religious Poems is a bountiful and moving gathering of voices that offers countless moments of inspiration, solace, meditation, and transcendence. The poems in this unprecedented volume are a lasting testimony to the American spirit and its unremitting quest for ultimate truth and meaning."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Harold Bloom	xxv
About This Book, by Jesse Zuba	xlix
The Bay Psalm Book
Psalme	19
Thomas Dudley
"Dim Eyes, deaf Ears, cold stomack shew"	2	(1)
Roger Williams
"God gives them sleep on Ground, on Straw"	3	(1)
"Bòast not proud English, of thy birth & blood,"	3	(1)
"They see Gods wonders that are call'd"	4	(1)
"The Indians prize not English gold,"	4	(1)
Anne Bradstreet
The Flesh and the Spirit	5	(3)
For Delivere from a feaver	8	(1)
"In silent night when rest I took"	8	(2)
'As weary pilgrim, now at rest"	10	(1)
John Saffin
Consideratus Considerandus	11	(2)
Michael Wigglesworth
from The Day of Doom: Vanity of Vanities	13	(4)
Edward Taylor
from Preparatory Meditations: First Series
8. Joh. 6 51	17	(1)
38. I Joh. 2.1	18	(1)
from Preparatory Meditations: Second Series
12. Ezek. 37.24	19	(2)
18. Heb. 13.10	21	(2)
Let by rain	23	(1)
Upon a Spider Catching a Fly	24	(1)
Upon a Wasp Child with Cold	25	(1)
Huswifery	26	(1)
The Ebb and Flow	27	(1)
A Fig for thee Oh! Death	28	(1)
Benjamin Tompson
'A Neighbour's Tears"	29	(1)
Nicholas Noyes
'A Consolatory Poem Dedicated unto Mr. Cotton Mather"	30	(4)
John Norton Jr.
A Funeral Elogy"	34	(3)
Cotton Mather
The Rain gasped for	37	(1)
Mather Byles
"Great GOD, how frail a Thing is Man!"	38	(3)
William Billings
Chester	41	(1)
An Anthem, for Thanksgiving: Psalm 148.	42	(1)
Timothy Dwight
from The Triumph of Infidelity	43	(1)
Philip Freneau
On the Religion of Nature	44	(1)
Phillis Wheatley
On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield	45	(1)
To a Lady on the Death of Three Relations	46	(1)
John Leland
"The day is past and gone"	47	(1)
Joel Barlow
from The Columbiad	48	(1)
John Quincy Adams
O Lord, Thy All-Discerning Eyes	49	(1)
Richard Henry Dana Sr.
The Little Beach-Bird	50	(1)
Emma Hart Willard
Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep	51	(1)
Lydia Huntley Sigourney
The Coral Insect	52	(2)
William Cullen Bryant
Thanatopsis	54	(2)
To a Waterfowl	56	(1)
Forest Hymn	57	(3)
Hymn of the Waldenses	60	(1)
George Washington Doane
Evening	61	(1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Problem	62	(2)
The Rhodora	64	(1)
Dirge	64	(2)
Brahma	66	(1)
Boston Hymn	67	(3)
ΓνωΘι Σepsilonαupsilonτomicronν	70	(3)
"There is in all the sons of men"	73	(1)
"I will not live out of me"	74	(1)
"He walked the streets of great New York"	75	(1)
"Shun passion, fold the hands of thrift,"	76	(1)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Psalm of Life	76	(2)
The Bridge	78	(2)
The Jewish Cemetery at Newport	80	(2)
Christmas Bells	82	(1)
My Cathedral	83	(1)
John Greenleaf Whittier
First-Day Thoughts	83	(1)
The Eternal Goodness	84	(3)
Unity	87	(1)
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Chambered Nautilus	88	(1)
The Living Temple	89	(2)
Edmund Hamilton Sears
"It came upon the midnight clear,"	91	(1)
Christopher Pearse Cranch
Correspondences	92	(1)
Enosis	93	(1)
Jones Very
The New Birth	94	(1)
Enoch	95	(1)
The Cup	95	(1)
The New World	96	(1)
The Created	96	(1)
Yourself	97	(1)
The Cottage	97	(1)
Autumn Flowers	98	(1)
The Origin of Man	99	(1)
Night	100	(1)
William Ellery Channing
Hymn of the Earth	100	(1)
Henry David Thoreau
Sic Vita	101	(1)
Music	102	(1)
Inspiration	103	(3)
Julia Ward Howe
Battle-Hymn of the Republic	106	(1)
James Russell Lowell
After the Burial	107	(2)
Herman Melville
from Moby-Dick	109	(1)
from Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land	110	(1)
The Enthusiast	111	(1)
Fragments of a Lost Gnostic Poem of the 12th Century	112	(1)
Pontoosuce	112	(3)
Walt Whitman
"In vain were nails driven through my hands."	115	(1)
from Song of Myself	115	(5)
from Crossing Brooklyn Ferry	120	(2)
As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life	122	(3)
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd	125	(9)
As Adam Early in the Morning	134	(1)
Chanting the Square Deific	134	(2)
A Noiseless Patient Spider	136	(1)
Frederick Goddard Tuckerman
Sonnets	137	(1)
"Not the round natural world, not the deep mind."	138	(1)
Robert Lowry
Beautiful River	138	(2)
Emily Dickinson
"I got so I could take his name–"	140	(1)
"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,"	141	(1)
"I know that He exists."	141	(1)
'After great pain, a formal feeling comes–"	142	(1)
"Dare you see a Soul at the 'White Heat'?"	142	(1)
"Our journey had advanced–"	143	(1)
"It might be lonelier"	143	(1)
"I heard a Fly buzz–when I died–"	144	(1)
"To pile like Thunder to it's close"	145	(1)
"Heavenly Father'–take to thee"	145	(1)
"The Spirit lasts–but in what mode–"	145	(1)
"My life closed twice before it's close;"	146	(1)
Helen Hunt Jackson
A Last Prayer	146	(1)
Knowles Shaw
Sowing in the Morning	147	(1)
Phillips Brooks
O Little Town of Bethlehem	148	(1)
Sanford F. Bennett
"There's a land that is fairer than day,"	149	(1)
William Dean Howells
What Shall It Profit	150	(1)
Sidney Lanier
A Ballad of Trees and the Master	150	(1)
John Banister Tabb
Nekros	151	(1)
Communion	151	(1)
Tenebrae	152	(1)
Emma Lazarus
In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport	152	(2)
The New Ezekiel	154	(1)
Edwin Markham
In Death Valley	154	(1)
Lizette Woodworth Reese
Trust	155	(1)
This Very Hour	155	(1)
Edith Wharton Terminus	156	(2)
W.E.B. Du Bois
A Litany at Atlanta	158	(3)
Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Children of the Night	161	(2)
Karma	163	(1)
James Weldon Johnson
The Creation	163	(3)
Paul Laurence Dunbar
An Ante-Bellum Sermon	166	(3)
Religion	169	(1)
Vincent O'Sullivan
Out of the Cloud	169	(1)
Trumbull Stickney
"He said: 'If in his image I was made,"	170	(1)
'And, the last day being come, Man stood alone"	170	(1)
Anna Hempstead Branch
In the Beginning Was the Word	171	(4)
Robert Frost
A Prayer in Spring	175	(1)
Bereft	175	(1)
Design	176	(1)
Once by the Pacific	176	(1)
Directive	177	(2)
Ameen Rihani
The Song of Siva	179	(1)
Renunciation	180	(1)
A Sufi Song	180	(1)
Carl Sandburg
Our Prayer of Thanks	181	(1)
For You	181	(2)
William Stanley Braithwaite
The Eternal Self	183	(1)
Vachel Lindsay
General William Booth Enters Heaven	184	(2)
The Unpardonable Sin	186	(1)
Wallace Stevens
Tea at the Palaz of Hoon	187	(1)
Sunday Morning	187	(4)
God Is Good. It Is a Beautiful Night	191	(1)
Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit	192	(1)
Angel Surrounded by Paysans	193	(1)
Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour	194	(1)
Of Mere Being	194	(1)
Kahlil Gibran
O Soul	195	(1)
William Carlos Williams
Burning the Christmas Greens	195	(3)
The Gift	198	(2)
Sara Teasdale
The Sanctuary	200	(1)
H.D.
from The Walls Do Not Fall	200	(2)
from The Flowering of the Rod	202	(3)
Moyshe-Leyb Halpern
Memento Mori	205	(1)
The Will	205	(2)
Robinson Jeffers
Shine, Perishing Republic	207	(1)
Apology for Bad Dreams	208	(3)
Hurt Hawks	211	(1)
The Treasure	212	(1)
Marianne Moore
The Steeple-Jack	213	(3)
Elinor Wylie
Address to My Soul	216	(1)
T.S. Eliot
The Hippopotamus	217	(1)
Ash-Wednesday	218	(7)
Journey of the Magi	225	(2)
A Song for Simeon	227	(1)
Little Gidding	228	(7)
H. Leivick
The Sturdy in Me	235	(1)
John Crowe Ransom
Armageddon	236	(3)
Conrad Aiken
Tetelestai	239	(3)
Mikhail Naimy
Autumn Leaves	242	(2)
Claude McKay
I Know My Soul	244	(1)
Russian Cathedral	244	(1)
Edna St. Vincent Millay
God's World	245	(1)
Samuel Greenberg God	245	(1)
E.E. Cummings
thank You God for this amazing"	246	(1)
Charles Reznikoff
Luzzato	247	(1)
Spinoza	247	(1)
"There is nobody in the street"	248	(1)
Jean Toomer
Prayer	248	(1)
The Gods Are Here	248	(1)
Jacob Glatshteyn
Without Offerings	249	(1)
Louise Bogan
Night	250	(1)
John Wheelwright
Fish Food	251	(1)
Come Over and Help Us	252	(3)
Bread-Word Giver	255	(1)
Melvin B. Tolson
A Song for Myself	256	(5)
Léonie Adams
Bell Tower	261	(1)
Hart Crane
Lachrymae Christi	262	(1)
from Voyages	263	(1)
from The Bridge	264	(12)
O Carib Isle!	276	(1)
The Broken Tower	277	(1)
Thomas A. Dorsey
Take My Hand, Precious Lord	278	(1)
Allen Tate
The Cross	279	(1)
The Twelve	280	(1)
Sonnets at Christmas	280	(1)
Sterling A. Brown
Sister Lou	281	(2)
Laura Riding
There Is No Land Yet	283	(1)
Faith Upon the Waters	284	(1)
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers	285	(1)
Prayer	286	(1)
Heaven	286	(1)
Countee Cullen
Simon the Cyrenian Speaks	286	(1)
The Litany of the Dark People	287	(1)
Carl Rakosi
Meditation ("Three things remind me of You,")	288	(1)
Meditation ("How long will you remain a boy?")	288	(1)
Richard Eberhart
The Groundhog	289	(1)
The Soul Longs to Return Whence It Came	290	(2)
Louis Zukofsky
from "A" - 12	292	(4)
Stanley Kunitz
Benediction	296	(2)
Kenneth Rexroth
The Signature of All Things	298	(2)
Robert Penn Warren
Evening Hawk	300	(1)
Heart of Autumn	301	(1)
W.H. Auden
from Horae Canonicae	302	(5)
George Oppen	307	(1)
Psalm
Theodore Roethke
The Waking	308	(1)
Ina Dark Time	309	(1)
James Agee
"This little time the breath and bulk of being"	310	(1)
Elizabeth Bishop
The Unbeliever	310	(1)
Over 2000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance	311	(2)
At the Fishhouses	313	(2)
William Everson
A Canticle to the Waterbirds	315	(4)
Jean Garrigue
A Demon Came to Me	319	(1)
Robert Hayden
"From the corpse woodpiles, from the ashes"	319	(1)
Baha'u'llah in the Garden of Ridwan	320	(1)
The Broken Dark	321	(1)
Ice Storm	322	(1)
"As my blood was drawn,"	322	(1)
John Frederick Nims
Prayer	323	(1)
The Dark Night	324	(2)
Knowledge of God	326	(1)
Muriel Rukeyser
Are You Born?/I	326	(1)
Are You Born?/II	327	(1)
Delmore Schwartz
At a Solemn Musick	327	(2)
Karl Shapiro
The Alphabet	329	(1)
May Swenson
Question	330	(1)
The Lightning	331	(1)
Big-Hipped Nature	331	(1)
Each Like a Leaf	332	(2)
John Berryman
Eleven Addresses to the Lord	334	(7)
David Ignatow
Kaddish	341	(1)
Randall Jarrell
Jonah	342	(1)
William Stafford
With My Crowbar Key	343	(1)
Thomas Merton
St. Paul	344	(1)
In Silence	345	(1)
Elegy for the Monastery Barn	346	(1)
Robert Lowell
Where the Rainbow Ends	347	(1)
William Bronk
Virgin and Child with Music and Numbers	348	(1)
The Mind's Limitations Are Its Freedom	349	(1)
Robert Duncan
Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow	350	(1)
The Natural Doctrine	351	(1)
God-Spell	352	(1)
Amy Clampitt
A Procession at Candlemas	353	(5)
Easter Morning	358	(1)
Brought From Beyond	358	(1)
A Silence	359	(2)
Howard Nemerov
The Loon's Cry	361	(3)
Richard Wilbur
'A World Without Objects Is a Sensible Emptiness"	364	(1)
Advice to a Prophet	365	(1)
A Christmas Hymn	366	(1)
In a Churchyard	367	(2)
The Proof	369	(1)
James Dickey
Adam in Winter	369	(2)
Walking on Water	371	(1)
Alan Dugan
Love Song: I and Thou	372	(1)
Anthony Hecht
A Hill	373	(2)
Adam	375	(1)
Saul and David	376	(1)
Richard Hugo
St. Clement's: Harris	377	(2)
Denise Levertov
The Jacob's Ladder	379	(1)
Flickering Mind	379	(1)
Suspended	380	(1)
James Schuyler
Our Father	381	(2)
James Baldwin Amen	383	(1)
Edgar Bowers
From William Tyndale to John Frith	384	(1)
Adam	385	(1)
Jacob	385	(1)
Jack Gilbert
The White Heart of God	386	(1)
Carolyn Kizer
Shalimar Gardens	387	(1)
Kenneth Koch
Alive for an Instant	388	(1)
Samuel Menashe
Paradise — After Giovanni di Paolo	389	(1)
Gerald Stern
Lord, Forgive a Spirit	389	(1)
A.R. Ammons
Prodigal	390	(1)
Terrain	391	(1)
The City Limits	392	(1)
The Arc Inside and Out	393	(2)
For Harold Bloom	395	(1)
Easter Morning	396	(3)
Robert Bly
The Night Abraham Called to the Stars	399	(1)
Allen Ginsberg
Sunflower Sutra	400	(2)
Psalm III	402	(1)
Wales Visitation	402	(3)
James Merrill
An Upward Look	405	(1)
John Ashbery
The Recital	406	(8)
Syringa	414	(3)
By Forced Marches	417	(1)
Galway Kinnell
To Christ Our Lord	418	(1)
W.S. Merwin
Lemuel's Blessing	419	(2)
Noah's Raven	421	(1)
Fourth Psalm: The Cerements	421	(2)
The Blind Seer of Ambon	423	(2)
James Wright
The Refusal	425	(1)
A Blessing	426	(1)
Saint Judas	427	(1)
Donald Hall
A Small Fig Tree	428	(1)
A Grace	428	(1)
Samuel Hazo
The Holy Surprise of Right Now	429	(1)
Philip Levine
A Late Answer	430	(2)
To My God in His Sickness	432	(3)
Cynthia Ozick
"When that with tragic rapture Moses stood..."	435	(2)
Anne Sexton Rowing	437	(2)
Joseph Awad
For Jude's Lebanon	439	(1)
Alvin Feinman
Pilgrim Heights	440	(1)
November Sunday Morning	441	(1)
John Hollander
At the New Year	442	(1)
Adam's Task	443	(1)
A Shadow of a Great Rock in a Weary Land	444	(3)
Gary Snyder
Milton by Firelight	447	(1)
Burning Island	448	(2)
Ripples on the Surface	450	(1)
Allen Grossman
The Song of the Lord	450	(1)
Sylvia Plath
Black Rook in Rainy Weather	451	(2)
N. Scott Momaday
The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee	453	(1)
Carriers of the Dream Wheel	454	(1)
Mark Strand
White	454	(1)
Orpheus Alone	455	(2)
from Dark Harbor	457	(1)
James Applewhite
The Sex of Divinity	458	(1)
Ronald Johnson
from ARK: Beam 30, The Garden	459	(1)
Mary Oliver
When Death Comes	460	(1)
Grace Schulman
Blessed Is the Light	461	(1)
Prayer	462	(1)
Charles Wright
Apologia Pro Vita Sua	463	(10)
Jay Wright
The Origin of Mary in a Cathedral Choir	473	(2)
Desire's Persistence	475	(4)
Lucille Clifton
the astrologer predicts at mary's birth	479	(1)
anna speaks of the childhood of mary her daughter	480	(1)
mary's dream	480	(1)
how he is coming then	480	(1)
holy night	481	(1)
a song of mary	481	(1)
island mary	481	(1)
"mary mary astonished by God"	482	(1)
C.K. Williams
The Vessel	482	(1)
Michael S. Harper
Peace on Earth	483	(2)
Charles Simic
Mystic Life	485	(3)
Frank Bidart
The Sacrifice	488	(1)
Paul Mariani
Giottoesque	489	(2)
Robert Pinsky
The Knight's Prayer	491	(2)
Simon J. Ortiz
The Creation, According to Coyote	493	(1)
Alfred Corn
Jerusalem	494	(2)
Louise Glück
Lamentations	496	(2)
Matins	498	(1)
Vespers	499	(1)
Michael Palmer
Untitled (September '92)	500	(2)
J.D. McClatchy
Dervish	502	(2)
Carol Muske-Dukes
When He Fell	504	(1)
Vicki Hearne
Good Friday: No Way Out but Straight Through, Jack	505	(1)
The Leisure of God	506	(1)
Linda Hogan
Me, Crow, Fish, and the Magi	506	(2)
The Inside of Things	508	(1)
Jane Kenyon
Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks	509	(1)
Yusef Komunyakaa
Thanks	510	(1)
Geoffrey O'Brien
The Prophet	511	(1)
Agha Shahid Ali
First Day of Spring	512	(1)
God	513	(1)
Tonight	513	(2)
Edward Hirsch
Away from Dogma	515	(3)
James Richardson
Evening Prayer	518	(1)
Arthur Sze
The Unnamable River	519	(1)
Chase Twichell
Cloud of Unknowing	520	(1)
Bill Wadsworth
The Authority of Elsewhere	521	(2)
Jorie Graham
Prayer	523	(3)
Joy Harjo
A Map to the Next World	526	(3)
Garrett Hongo
O-Bon: Dance for the Dead	529	(1)
Volcano House	530	(1)
Andrew Hudgins
Christ as a Gardener	531	(1)
Judith Ortiz Cofer
The Campesino's Lament	532	(1)
Chard DeNiord
Transubstantiation	533	(1)
Rita Dove
Receiving the Stigmata	534	(1)
Mark Jarman
Transfiguration	535	(4)
Naomi Shihab Nye
My Uncle Mohammed at Mecca, 1981	539	(1)
Alberto Rios
The Death of Anselmo Luna	540	(1)
Alan Shapiro
Prayer on the Temple Steps	541	(1)
Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Supernatural Love	542	(2)
Rosanna Warren
Hagar	544	(1)
Cyprian	545	(2)
Antique	547	(1)
Scott Cairns
Prospect of the Interior	548	(1)
Louise Erdrich
New Vows	549	(1)
Thylias Moss
The Warmth of Hot Chocolate	549	(2)
A Man	551	(2)
John Burt
On the Will to Believe	553	(1)
Sonnets for Mary of Nazareth	554	(1)
Robert Vasquez
Belief	555	(1)
Susan Wheeler
That Been to Me My Lives Light and Saviour	556	(2)
April Bernard
Psalm of the Tree-Dweller	558	(1)
Lucie Brock-Broido
The One Theme of Which Everything Else Is a Variation	559	(1)
Henri Cole
Apollo	560	(7)
Presepio	567	(1)
Blur	568	(3)
Dionisio D. Martinez
Standard Time: Novena for My Father	571	(1)
Joseph Harrison
The Relic	572	(2)
Li-Young Lee
This Hour and What Is Dead	574	(1)
Night Mirror	575	(1)
Esther Schor
Alef	576	(1)
Carl Phillips
Visitation	577	(1)
A Great Noise	578	(1)
From the Devotions	579	(3)
Josephine Singer
Provision	582	(1)
David Woo
Eden	583	(1)
Ballad of Infinite Forgetfulness	584	(1)
David Daniel
Seven-Star Bird	585	(2)
Martha Serpas
As If There Were Only One	587	(1)
Witness Tree	588	(1)
Psalm at High Tide	589	(1)
Poem Found	590	(1)
Khaled Mattawa
I Was Buried in Janzoor	591	(1)
Suji Kwock Kim
The Tree of Unknowing	592	(1)
Brett Foster
The First Request of Lazarus	593	(4)
American Indian Songs and Chants
The Thanksgivings (Iroquois)	597	(1)
This Is to Frighten a Storm (Cherokee)	598	(1)
To Go to the Water (Cherokee)	598	(1)
Is This Real (Pawnee)	599	(1)
Ghost-Dance Songs (Kiowa)	599	(1)
Therefore I Must Tell the Truth (Navajo)	600	(1)
from The Night Chant (Navajo)	601	(3)
Song of the Sky Loom (Tewa)	604	(1)
Prayer to the Deceased (Tewa)	604	(1)
The Creation of the Earth (Pima)	605	(1)
Special Request for the Children of Mother Corn (Zuni)	605	(1)
Deer Song (Yaqui)	606	(1)
Shaman's Song (Modoc)	607	(1)
Shaman's Song (Inuit)	608	(1)
Spirituals and Anonymous Hymns
Balm in Gilead	609	(1)
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel	609	(1)
Ezekiel Saw de Wheel	610	(1)
Free at Last	611	(1)
Got a Home in That Rock	611	(1)
I Know Moon-Rise	612	(1)
Let My People Go	613	(2)
Lonesome Valley	615	(1)
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Had	616	(1)
Poor Wayfaring Stranger	617	(1)
Simple Gifts	618	(1)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child	618	(1)
Steal Away	619	(1)
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot	619	(4)
Reader's Guide	623	(16)
Sources and Acknowledgments	639	(16)
Notes	655	(6)
Index of Poets	661	(4)
Index of Titles and First Lines	665