Poems

The poetry of St. John of the Cross has received almost innumerable accolades. In his Preface to this volume, M. C. D’Arcy quotes Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, the remarkable Spanish historian and critic, in praise of the poems of the Mystical Doctor: “So sublime is this poetry that it scarcely seems to belong to this world at all; it is hardly capable of being assessed by literary criteria.… The Spirit of God has passed through these poems every one, beautifying and sanctifying them on its way.” In this brilliant English translation, first published in 1952 and acclaimed by Roger Scruton as an emblem of “passionate Christian mysticism,” Roy Campbell masterfully presents in these twenty-two poems the same mystical freshness and intensity of the Dark Night of the Soul and the Spiritual Canticle.

These poems, in conjunction with the Preface by M. C. D’Arcy and the Afterword by Conrad Pepler, O.P., constitute an occasion to enter the inexhaustible mystery of the Divine.