Page:The Poet's Chantry pg 046.jpg

46 . But in truth, one might almost as well compare Jeremy Taylor with Ignatius Loyola. In Herbert's work we have the piously beautiful fancies of a poetic English clergyman; in Crashaw's, the burning dreams of a genius and a mystic. Speaking of this from a wholly literary standpoint, Dr. Grosart declares our poet's work "of a diviner stuff, and woven in a grander loom; in sooth, infinitely deeper and finer in almost every element of true singing as differenced from pious and gracious versifying." But obviously the stream was not innocent of tributaries. The influence of the Italian Marino is conspicuous, not only in Crashaw's translation of the "Sospetto d'Herode," but throughout his style as a whole; indeed, this elaborate fancifulness of writing is noticeable in all the poets of the day. There is, to boot, more than a touch of John Donne's subtlety in his work, although but little of his ambiguity. As for Robert Southwell, I think we cannot doubt his influence on Crashaw, and his real affinity of temperament; he is one of the very few other Englishmen in whom we find this singular blending of "conceit" with deep sincerity—of emotional tenderness with ascetic concentration upon things divine. But most potent of all were the writings of the great Spanish contemplative, St. Teresa:

Crashaw declares: and again—

Francis Thompson has declared that Crashaw