Written by some of the most prominent scholars in seventeenth-century studies, this unified collection of twelve original essays offers new perspectives on the English religious lyric. It does so by addressing in particular three important issues concerning seventeenth-century devotional poetry: Is the religious lyric a genre, or is it only a lyric poem on a religious theme? When we say "religious" lyric, are we sometimes too restrictive and narrow in our understanding of the word?

To what extent do religious lyrics also participate in and reflect the social, political, and cultural contexts of the period in which they were written? These essays offer new insights into the religious poetry of Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Jonson, Herrick, Vaughan, and Marvell. In addition, modern theoretical criticism is discussed, and the editor has provided a selective, though extensive, bibliography of modern studies of the seventeenth-century religious lyric.

Contributing significantly to a fuller understanding and greater appreciation of this elusive and fascinating genre, New Perspectives on the Seventeenth-Century English Religious Lyric will be of major importance to all scholars and students of the seventeenth century.