Poets & Mystics

By E. I. Watkin

Poets & Mystics is a collection of essays and studies in which E. I. Watkin addresses theology, philosophy, and aesthetics while critically examining the lives and work of selected mystics and poets. Watkins looks at the Cambridge Platonism of John Smith, the controversial mysticism of Margery Kempe; the traditional verse of Ruth Pitter; and the Welsh revivalist Henry Vaughan. Additional discourses on Richard Crashaw and Thomas Goodwin round out this broad, intelligent work that discerns the element of mysticism at play in daily life.

Not holding the same level of prominence today as do many of his contemporaries (such as Christopher Dawson, Jacques Maritain, and Martin D’Arcy, to name but a few), Watkin was nevertheless an important and influential figure in generating a revival of interest in Catholic arts and letters during the twentieth century. Poets & Mystics typifies his distinctly personal style and his robust philosophical approach to questions of art, beauty, and truth.

E. I. Watkin (1888–1981) was an English writer and convert to Catholicism. Described by the London Times as “one of the most distinguished Catholic philosophers of his day,” Watkin authored books and essays on topics as varied as poetry and philosophy, mysticism and ethics, history and religion, and aesthetics and theology. His books include A Philosophy of Form (1935) and An Essay on Catholic Art and Culture (1944).

Paperback: 346pp.

ISBN: 978-1949899047