By E. I. Watkin

Poets & Mystics addresses areas of interest in theology, philosophy, and aesthetics by critical examination of the lives and works of selected writers and visionaries. E. I. Watkin surveys the Cambridge Platonism of John Smith, the controversial mysticism of Margery Kempe (at whose defense he staunchly stands); the verses of Ruth Pitter (a voice of traditional poeticism amidst the formal experimentation of the Modernists); and the seventeenth-century Welsh poet Henry Vaughan (whose classical work saw a revival of interest in the mid-nineteenth century). While Watkin acknowledges in his preface that the discourses on Richard Crashaw and Thomas Goodwin are, “strictly speaking,” not entitled to a place within the collection, their inclusion makes for a broad, intelligent work that discerns the element of mysticism at play in daily life.

Not holding the same level of prominence today as many of his contemporaries (such as Christopher Dawson, Jacques Maritain, and Martin D’Arcy, to name but a few), Watkin was nevertheless an influential figure in the twentieth-century revival of Catholic arts and letters. Originally published in 1953, Poets & Mystics typifies his distinctly personal style and his robust philosophical approach to questions of beauty  and truth.

“The joys the poet indicates, the mystic possesses.” (E. I. Watkin)

E. I. Watkin (1888–1981) was an English writer and Catholic convert. Described by The London Times as “one of the most distinguished Catholic philosophers of his day,” Watkin wrote books and essays on poetry and philosophy, aesthetics and ethics, history and religion, and mysticism and theology. His books include Catholic Art and Culture and Neglected Saints, both of which are restored and available from Cluny.

Paperback: 298pp.

ISBN: 978-1949899047