The Hundredfold is a tapestry of hymns, monologues, and
short lyrics knit together as one book-length poem in praise
of Christ in his startling humanity. Using all the riches of
the English poetic tradition—meter, rhyme, music—the poet
ponders the mysterious man from Nazareth and the world he
came to set on fire with splendor.
Having made a career of translating the Italian masters Dante
and Tasso, Anthony Esolen puts on the dusty mantle of such
English craftsmen as Donne, Milton, and Hopkins in his first
book of original contemplative poetry. The Hundredfold contains
dramatic monologues set in first-century Greece and
Palestine; lyrical meditations on creation, longing, failure,
modern emptiness, and unshakeable hope; and twentyone
brand-new hymns, set to such traditional melodies as
"Picardy" and "Old One-Hundred-Twenty-Fourth".
The book includes an introduction with diamond-sharp
insights about English poetic forms at a time when form is so
often misunderstood, if not dismissed. It provides an invaluable
resource for students, teachers, and poets themselves, as
well as those who read poetry for pleasure
POINTS OF INTEREST
• One hundred new poems and hymns by an
acclaimed translator and professor of poetry
• Beautiful original verses that can be an aid to
prayer, meditation, and worship
• A thorough and illuminating introduction to
poetry