Powerful Poetry
Some Thoughts on Classical Christian Poetry from
Jim Kerwin

NOTE: To skip the introduction and jump immediately the poems, use the indices over in the right column.

Introduction

Call me retro, old-fashioned, or out-of-touch (my daughters have called me all that and more, at various times, and undoubtedly for good reasons), but I like good poetry. Poets aren’t just people who can rhyme words or write in meter. Real poets, in my humble estimation, are men or women gifted with the ability to express deep yearnings and experiences which all of us share as human beings, but which most of us lack the ability to communicate—or sometimes even to recognize. Poets help us to grasp, for an instant, the sublime, the simple, the soul, and—sometimes—even the deeply spiritual. They elicit of us exclamations of confirmation: “Yes! I know that feeling! You have expressed in words all that is in my heart. You have crystallized something I have sensed for a long time but have never been able to articulate.” True poets seem to write under a sense of inspiration and what they write leaves us inspired as well.

And I use the word inspiration in a sense much closer to the Biblical idea of “God-breathed,” when it comes to classical Christian poets. They were men and women who, first and foremost, knew God intimately, who burned with intense passions to worship and praise Him with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Because they knew God and they learned His Book by heart, their works are full of Biblical quotations, references, and allusions. Knowing God personally and worshipfully, and His Book intimately, their lyric phrases and stanzas are full of profound theological Truth. And because they were masters of their God-given native language and could draw deftly and richly out of the treasure-trove of their mother tongue, they could express, sublimely and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what most of us, with our lesser gifts, find to be inexpressible.

Yes, almost all of these creations found their way into hymns; but remember—they were born as poems. We at Parbar Westward prayerfully re-introduce these priceless (but neglected or forgotten) treasures to a new generation. May these Poetic Pearls of Praise inspire purer and deeper expressions of passionate worship to our loving God. May they help channel hearts, souls, minds, and spirits towards the Throne of Grace, while edifying the inner man and the mind of the believer. We will start out small, perhaps adding only one poem per month, and add to the list as God gives us grace and strength and allots us the time. May you be edified, enriched, and released into new avenues of adoration by means of these Treasures from the Chief Musician’s Trove.

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Powerful Poetry Some Thoughts on Classical Christian Poetry from Jim Kerwin

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Powerful Poetry
Some Thoughts on Classical Christian Poetry from
Jim Kerwin