The Works of Love

The Works of Love is a study of poetry in the context of religious faith. The essays are short and focus on major poets from George Herbert, through John Clare and Patrick Kavanagh to the contemporary Irish poet Padraig J. Daly. But the book looks at the poetry from a holistic perspective, to see how these poets relate to Christ and Incarnation and hence to the physical universe, to creation as a whole in its development, its ecology and its history. There are new translations of such classics as the 8th century 'Dream of the Rood¿ and of 'St Patrick¿s Breastplate¿, studies of important figures like Augustine through Hopkins to Teilhard de Chardin. These essays are placed in the context of a study of Eucharist and ecology, and the personal experience of John F. Deane, as child in Achill Island, as seminarian with the Holy Ghost Fathers, and as a young married man whose wife died too early. In such a context, there are essays on war and on how humanity may respond to the demands of love. The title refers to 'works of love¿ ¿ anything that is positive in living as opposed to negative, particularly great works of art which emphasise humanity¿s capacity for goodness.