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A Century of Poetry: 100 Poems for Searching the Heart
‘All serious lovers of poetry will want this book.’
A. N. Wilson
All good poetry has the power to transport and transform us, to inspire and challenge us, to comfort and heal us, and to hold up a mirror to the world around us.
In A Century of Poetry , Rowan Williams invites you to reflect with him on 100 poems from the past 100 years – poems with an originality and depth that can impel you to search your heart, and to explore your own experience and emotions at a deeper level.
Featuring the work of both famous and lesser-known poets, from different faiths, languages and cultures, A Century of Poetry gives you a fresh perspective on works you may be familiar with, as well as introducing you to poems you’ll be pleased to discover for the first time – or perhaps discover again.
These meditations, by a writer who is both a poet and a theologian, will open new doors into the experience of reading and absorbing great poetry, highlighting the ways in which their language and imagery can touch unfamiliar places in the heart and enliven the lifelong adventure of spiritual growth and exploration.
A. N. Wilson
All good poetry has the power to transport and transform us, to inspire and challenge us, to comfort and heal us, and to hold up a mirror to the world around us.
In A Century of Poetry , Rowan Williams invites you to reflect with him on 100 poems from the past 100 years – poems with an originality and depth that can impel you to search your heart, and to explore your own experience and emotions at a deeper level.
Featuring the work of both famous and lesser-known poets, from different faiths, languages and cultures, A Century of Poetry gives you a fresh perspective on works you may be familiar with, as well as introducing you to poems you’ll be pleased to discover for the first time – or perhaps discover again.
These meditations, by a writer who is both a poet and a theologian, will open new doors into the experience of reading and absorbing great poetry, highlighting the ways in which their language and imagery can touch unfamiliar places in the heart and enliven the lifelong adventure of spiritual growth and exploration.
- GenresPoetry
400 pages, Hardcover
Published September 15, 2022
33 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Rowan Williams
260 books338 followersRowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, is an Anglican bishop, poet, and theologian. He was Archbishop of Canterbury from December 2002-2012, and is now Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and Chancellor of the University of South Wales.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2025
An excellent collection of one hundred poems about faith, doubt, and spirituality in all its forms, bolstered by commentary from the former Archbishop.
December 16, 2023
Besides being a rich collection of poems from the past hundred years, the reflections by Rowan Williams on each of these poems are what really set this book apart. This is someone who has clearly steeped himself in poetry, paying attention to poems over many years and letting them do their slow, mysterious work on him.
He makes clear right up front that this is not some compendium of the “One Hundred Best Religious Poems of the Past Century” (as if such a collection were even possible). Nor are these necessarily his favorite poems. Rather, Williams writes, “the principle of selection has been simply whether or not they open the door to some fresh, searching and challenging insights about the life of faith: do they present the language of religious belief, the images and connecting patterns in what people of faith say about their world, as something worth thinking about, worth thinking with, and capable of leaving the reader with an enhanced perception of their humanity and all that surrounds it?”
Employing that “principle of selection,” here we do find a few of the usual twentieth century suspects like Auden and Eliot. But many of the poets here are new to me, and likely will be to you as well. Williams tells us that he intended “to balance much anthologized authors . . . with less familiar names” while being intentional about including non-Western and non-Christian poets as well. His instincts are good.
As I have savored the poems in this book, I’ve thought of Pádraig Ó Tuama’s “Poetry Unbound” project. In each episode, he provides a very brief introduction to a poem—usually some autobiographical tidbit that connects him to it—before reading the poem itself slowly and carefully and with all his Irish heart. He then offers some reflections on the poem, peeling back the layers of the onion, as it were. Finally, he reads us the poem one more time. Always, the poem sounds different to me the second time around.
It seems to me the Poetry Unbound method is a good way to approach this book. To first read the poem, then the reflection, then the poem again. And then to go about our day with the poem as some kind of mysterious companion.
He makes clear right up front that this is not some compendium of the “One Hundred Best Religious Poems of the Past Century” (as if such a collection were even possible). Nor are these necessarily his favorite poems. Rather, Williams writes, “the principle of selection has been simply whether or not they open the door to some fresh, searching and challenging insights about the life of faith: do they present the language of religious belief, the images and connecting patterns in what people of faith say about their world, as something worth thinking about, worth thinking with, and capable of leaving the reader with an enhanced perception of their humanity and all that surrounds it?”
Employing that “principle of selection,” here we do find a few of the usual twentieth century suspects like Auden and Eliot. But many of the poets here are new to me, and likely will be to you as well. Williams tells us that he intended “to balance much anthologized authors . . . with less familiar names” while being intentional about including non-Western and non-Christian poets as well. His instincts are good.
As I have savored the poems in this book, I’ve thought of Pádraig Ó Tuama’s “Poetry Unbound” project. In each episode, he provides a very brief introduction to a poem—usually some autobiographical tidbit that connects him to it—before reading the poem itself slowly and carefully and with all his Irish heart. He then offers some reflections on the poem, peeling back the layers of the onion, as it were. Finally, he reads us the poem one more time. Always, the poem sounds different to me the second time around.
It seems to me the Poetry Unbound method is a good way to approach this book. To first read the poem, then the reflection, then the poem again. And then to go about our day with the poem as some kind of mysterious companion.
February 28, 2024
Though the book is looking at spirituality and perhaps theology, it really is reflecting on poetry, poets and poems. I struggle with much poetry, not really understanding it. That was just as true of the 100 poems in this collection. There were maybe 10 poems I really liked, but many more that I simply didn't understand. Each poem is followed by Rowan William's reflection on the poem. Some of his explanations made more sense to me than the poems and had more appeal to me than the poems - but not all. Williams shows he is well read in poetry and literature and is able to comment not only on the poems in the collection, but on the poets and their collections of their poetry, as well as upon the poet's personal lives, where the poem fits in human history, what other poetry or literature the poem reflected. That is where I often lost interest. Poetry helps us to see usual things in unusual ways, but sometimes the unusual is so strange to me to be way beyond anything I can relate to. Unique human experiences sometimes are not replicable or understandable to 'outsiders.' Many of the poems reflect that poetry is sometimes a foreign language, but for whatever reason I'm not always willing to understand. Even with William's notes and explanations, some of the poems just remained completely foreign to me.
September 8, 2025
Wat veel mensen niet weten: de voormalig aartsbisschop van de Anglicaanse kerk en vermaard theoloog Rowan Williams is ook een niet onverdienstelijk dichter én poëziekenner. Dat laatste toont hij andermaal in een heerlijk werk waarin hij ons kennis laat maken met - wat ik altijd noem - geloofzoekende of geloofminnende dichters. Op een enkele uitzondering na zijn het allemaal Engelstalige dichters. Ondanks het feit dat ik liefhebber ben van het werk van Engelstalige dichters, kende ik veel besproken dichters niet. Het is dus een schatkamer voor de liefhebber van poëzie met een religieuze inslag.
Williams bespreekt telkens één gedicht, soms twee, van een dichter. Daarna vertelt hij erover. Hij legt het uit, plaatst het binnen de context van de rest van het werk van de dichter, en geeft soms informatie over de opvattingen en het leven van de dichter. Het boek toont zijn enorme belezenheid. Je moet het wel mondjesmaat tot je nemen. Ik las elke dag 's morgens een hoofdstuk. Heerlijk boek!
Williams bespreekt telkens één gedicht, soms twee, van een dichter. Daarna vertelt hij erover. Hij legt het uit, plaatst het binnen de context van de rest van het werk van de dichter, en geeft soms informatie over de opvattingen en het leven van de dichter. Het boek toont zijn enorme belezenheid. Je moet het wel mondjesmaat tot je nemen. Ik las elke dag 's morgens een hoofdstuk. Heerlijk boek!
August 17, 2025
A collection of a hundred poems with insightful commentary from the soul, curated by a master poet, philosopher, theologian, scholar and all around nice guy.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews