Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year

by Malcolm Guite

Poetry has always been a central element of Christian spirituality and is used in worship, in pastoral services and guided meditation. In Sounding the Seasons, Cambridge poet and priest Malcolm Guite transforms lectionary readings into lucid, inspiring poems, for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat. This second edition includes further sonnets for the Christian year written since the original edition, including a sequence of 19 sonnets on the resurrection appearances recorded in scripture. Immediate, striking, simple yet profound, Malcolm Guite’s poetry resonates deeply and widely across the churches of all traditions throughout the English speaking world.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

Published August 30, 2024

Reviews

[Alexa Bennett]

Stunning. Stunning poetry. I will be working this year to commit to memory many of these sonnets. And we will absolutely be incorporating reading this poetry into our family traditions as we celebrate many of the saints’ feast days commemorated in this work.

[Jane Riordan]

I went on a spiritual retreat recently and Malcolm Guite's poems on the Stations of the Cross were used for reflection on a stations of the cross walk around the extensive grounds. They are stunning in their power and poignancy and brought me to tears at many of the stations; he captures the agony and the beauty, the sacrifice and the pain.

I was so moved by them that I ordered the book whilst away and have been dipping in and out ever since, as there are poems - written in the format of sonnets - for all the major seasons of the church year and also for saints and apostles.

Just a beautiful book to have in one's collection.

[Wendy Smith]

I loved the sonnets, although those dedicated to different saints were not stories I'm familiar with.