Today’s Anglican Poets
Among all the Christian traditions, and especially those in the Protestant sphere, Anglicanism stands out for its rich and beautiful language. From the creation of the Book of Common Prayer forward, we have been a tradition of prayer through cadence, rhythm… poetry.
This tradition may flow naturally from the emphasis on beauty in the Prayer Book’s development. Whatever the reason, Anglicanism has produced a legacy of celebrated poets. We have, for example, a tradition of poet-priests, with clergymen such as George Herbert, John Donne, Thomas Traherne, and John Keble creating poetry that remains widely appreciated in both the church and literary circles today. However, the clergy make up only a small sample of the poets shaped by the Anglican tradition. William Shakespeare, Christina Rossetti, the Brontë sisters, T.S. Eliot, and many more are a taste of the wide range of Anglican poets.
Sponsored
Over the past few years, I’ve encountered many Anglican poets who continue the lively spirit of this legacy. I highlight three below—a poet-priest, a poet-deacon, and a poet-layperson. These poets, in some ways, couldn’t be more different in style and focus, yet they feel unified in their draw from the deep well of each one’s Christian faith and the undeniable nourishment of the Anglican tradition.
Malcolm Guite
The best-known contemporary writer carrying on the tradition of the Anglican poet-priest is Malcolm Guite. A scholar, poet, and priest based in England, Guite has received particular recognition in recent years for his sonnets about the saints and feasts celebrated by the Church throughout the liturgical calendar. My favorite of his volumes is Sounding the Seasons, originally published by Canterbury Press Norwich in 2012 and re-released in a much expanded form in 2024.
In the spirit of Keble’s The Christian Year reflections, though in a different poetic style, Guite’s liturgically themed sonnets stir the heart through his reflections on times, figures, and celebrations across the story of the church. In his introductory prologue to these sonnets and the Church Year, he writes:
From the first yearning for a Saviour’s birth
Malcolm Guite, “Prologue: Sounding the seasons” Sounding the Seasons
To the full joy of knowing sins forgiven,
We start our journey here on God’s good earth
To catch an echo of the choirs of heaven.
I sent these out, returning what was lent,
Turning to praise each ‘monument’s monument’.
Outside of his poetry, Guite has made a name for himself by reflecting on the theological value of beauty and the arts, his affection for the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their friends), and his “A Spell in the Library” series on YouTube, which has continued from the Covid-19 pandemic onward. He’s currently working on a new Arthurian epic series with The Rabbit Room.
Anna Friedrich
Fittingly, Malcolm Guite writes the foreword to our next poet’s first volume, Under the Terebinth, published by Wipf & Stock in 2024. Anna Friedrich serves as a deacon at the Church of the Cross in Boston, part of the Diocese of Christ Our Hope (also my diocese), and heads up her church’s arts ministry. Her poetry has been featured in places such as Common Good, Crux, and The Rabbit Room. she has written for Anglican Compass about her church’s creative Easter Vigil service. She eagerly provided me with a copy of Under the Terebinth.
This collection is divided into three sections, each covering broad themes: “Wings & Water,” “Liturgy,” “Beloveds,” and “Sorrow.”
Friedrich’s first volume of poetry captures reflections that are, on one hand, deeply tied to personal life experiences yet are simultaneously in dialogue with nature in the tradition of the great Romantic poets—or perhaps more fittingly, Traherne’s more theologically apropos foreshadowing of them. Ultimately, Friedrich is the most modern of the three poets in style, especially in visual spacing of the text and less constraint to particular meters. Yet the heart of the poetry is one recognizable throughout the best of the Christian poetic tradition.
The poetry of Under the Terebinth is filled with what I would call hopeful melancholy. The last section, “Sorrow,” personifies its namesake as a conversation partner. These are not “happy” poems—they deal with death, loss, disappointment, and related themes. And yet, through it all, there is a hopefulness in the midst of sorrow—a glimmer of something that finds its ultimate fulfilment not in this world but the one to come. It’s a uniquely Christian hope.
Like a chaplain whisked through a curtain
Anna A. Friedrich, “Imago,” Under the Terebinth
and left in a hospital room, I try to read
the moment, searching for signs of
death while rehearsing
my calling: hope.
All of the poems in Under the Terebinth offer deeply personal meditations that prime us for dialogue with God in our own hearts in the midst of life’s mess.
Cynthia Erlandson
Alongside being a poet, Cynthia Erlandson is a fitness professional who lives in Michigan, where she is a layperson in her church. Her acclaimed poetry has appeared in First Things, Modern Age, Touchstone, and the Anglican Theological Review, and the Reformed Episcopal Church hymnal, among other publications. Her first published volume, These Holy Mysteries, published over 20 years ago, engaged very directly with the Church Calendar in the tradition of Keble (reflections on the Church Year seem to be a running theme, and I welcome this continuation in the Anglican poetic sphere!).
I met Mrs. Erlandson at last year’s ACNA Provincial Assembly, and she was excited to send me a copy of her latest volume, Foundations of the Cross and Other Bible Stories, published by Resource Publications in 2024. In it, she offers retellings and reflections on the stories of (in order) the Old Testament, the connections between the Testaments, and finally the New Testament. Almost all of the poems begin with a scripture quotation, and many also feature
There are jewels in each of these, but my favorite might be the middle section, where the gospel connections are portrayed, often with an Old Testament figure speaking, followed by a parallel from a New Testament figure. In one of these, “Nunc dimittis” (named for the Song of Simeon that we recite each day in Evening Prayer), Israel (Jacob) takes the first stanza, ending:
… I will not grieve
Again. I’ll gladly go now to my grave
Grateful to God for unexpected grace.
Now let me die, since I have seen your face.
Simeon then speaks in parallel, ending:
At last, I can beeseech you to receive
Cynthia Erlandson, “Nunc dimittis,” Foundations of the Cross and Other Bible Stories
My aged soul in heaven, where none grieve,
And all will see the One you have revealed.
I’ve held your Son; my life is now fulfilled.
Ages apart, Jacob and his descendant both speak of being able to die because they have beheld God. How much more so can we rest in his promise to us now? Because of rich reflections such as this, Foundations of the Cross is a rich tapestry of poems reflecting on the story of Scripture.
Promote Your Poets
Of course, these are only a small sampling of the Anglican poets currently crafting beautiful, theologically rich, deeply reflective verse. Who else is out there at the moment? Please, leave your favorites in the comments.
Image: photo by MarkgrafAve from Getty Images Pro, courtesy of Canva.
The Anglican Poet-Priests
Anglicanism’s beautiful use of language has shaped the many Christian believers it has discipled. There should be no surprise, then, that the Anglican tradition has produced centuries of poets among its adherents—even its very clergy.
True North 2025: An Appeal for Anglican Compass
Each December, we ask our readers to give to our TRUE NORTH campaign. Join us as we point to Jesus through the riches of the Anglican tradition.
