A timeless, little-known literary classic to engage a new generation of readers.

As the Black Death ravaged London in 1608, in the midst of societal chaos and tragedy, playwright Thomas Dekker wrote Four Birds of Noah’s Ark, a book containing fifty-six prayers for the people of London and all of England.

The prayers in this book bear witness to Dekker’s deep faith with a power and poignancy that few written prayers in English literature achieve. Bringing Dekker’s devotional classic back into print for the first time since 1924, editor Robert Hudson has annotated the prayers and modernized their language without sacrificing their enchanting beauty and simplicity. Hudson’s substantive and illuminating introduction is a gem in itself.

I’m not really a fan of poetry, but every few years I like to pick up a book to read it and see if it resonates with me. It ususally doesn’t. I guess I don’t have the imagination for it. I prefer things laid out in black and white.

That’s pretty much how I felt about the poems in this book. I don’t think they’re overly terrible, but I know that I can’t/don’t appreciate them the way others do. These were definitely easier for me to read as the poems weren’t too metaphor-heavy. I’m glad I read them and am excited to share them with a friend who reads and writes poems.

If you’re looking for some easy-to-read poems, I do recommend these. I would consider them poems for the poetry-averse.