Inspirational Quotes by Richard Crashaw (British Poet)

Richard Crashaw (c.1613–49) was an English poet, teacher, Anglican cleric, and Catholic convert. He was one of the significant figures associated with the metaphysical poets in 17th-century English literature.

Born in London to a zealous Puritan preacher, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and became a Fellow of Peterhouse College (c.1636.) In 1634, he published a volume of Latin poems, Epigrammatum Sacrocorum Liber (“A Book of Sacred Epigrams.”)

Crashaw’s Roman Catholic leanings prevented him from receiving Anglican orders, and he lost his fellowship (1643) for refusing to take the Covenant. Crashaw went to Paris, became a Catholic, and published his Steps to the Temple (1646; Carmen Deo Nostro, 1652.) Crashaw designed twelve vignette engravings for his book.

Protestant poet Abraham Cowley introduced Crashaw to Queen Henrietta Maria of England, consort of Charles I, who recommended him at Rome. In April 1649, Crashaw became a subcanon at the Cathedral of Santa Casa (“Holy House”) at Loreto in the Italian province of Ancona.

L.C. Martin edited the standard text of The Poems: English, Latin, and Greek by Richard Crashaw (1927; revised 1957.)

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