As beautiful artifacts of speech, these poems are marked by a delightful radiance and beauty of form. Suffused with delight in the splendor of high culture, the divine, and the most sublime of human virtues, their finely crafted lines regale us with rich tapestries of history and the natural world.

Although most are nourished by Western literary traditions (ranging from Greco-Roman antiquity through the Middle Ages and on to our own time), others have been crafted in accordance with the very best Near Eastern, classical Chinese, and even Sanskrit models.

Many are grand, regal, and erudite; others are quieter, yet compelling in their tenderness and delicacy. All, however, cry out to be read aloud, to be heard, and to be treasured again and again.