Christocentric Poetry

[Philip G.]

Please provide me with a list of traditional catholic works or devotions that you would describe as being poetry about Jesus.

[Lynne]

The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson

http://www.houndsofheaven.com/thepoem.htm

[Bernadette]

John Donne wrote some religious poetry. Also St. Therese of Lisieux.

[Der Polka-König]

St John of the Cross of course wrote some brilliant religious poetry, as have many other Carmelites through the centuries (e.g. St Teresa of Avila, and St Therese of Lisieux, whom Bernadette already mentioned).

[Gardener]

While not as poetic in the translated English (unsure about Latin), Song of Songs and Psalms are very poetic and often about Christ. Song of Songs is basically "wine poetry", and a lot of the Sufi writers have kept up with the style.

Chesterton, of course.

[Non Nobis]

https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Every-Catholic-Should-Know/dp/1505108624/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1546924560&sr=8-1

"All of the great ones are here: Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Dante and Chaucer from the High Middle Ages; Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and John Donne from the Reformation; English and American Romantics such as Browning and Whittier; late nineteenth-century mystics like Dickenson and Hopkins, as well the great converts of that period like Newman and Chesterton;"

I asked for and received this book for Christmas, and it looks very good. I think  some of the authors are Christian but not actually Catholic - probably still worth reading. (The binding of the book is imitation leather and looks nice; but I think the cover is too flexible and could be bent easily).

[Josephine87]

Gerard Manley Hopkins

[Daniel]

Here's something medieval that I ran into a while back, called the Speculum Humanae Salvationis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculum_Humanae_Salvationis

An English* translation is available here: https://books.google.com/books?id=pdVBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false

It's pretty lengthy (45 chapters), kind of like the Gospel in the form of a poem, and contains a lot of explicit typology. The preface is a poem which functions as sort of a table of contents lol

*Note: It's in middle English, not modern English. But it's still pretty readable.

[Heinrich]

Well, there is the true masterpiece of the Middle Ages, Piers Plowman. A series of allegorical satires and perhaps parodies on life then. Not necessarily a paean, but a cultural piece with endearing religious overtones.