Called by John Henry Newman the "true and primary author" of the Oxford or Tractarian Movement, John Keble was also the author of the single most popular volume of verse in the nineteenth century, The Christian Year (1827). Though little known today, Keble's poetry was highly enough regarded in the Victorian age to prompt critics and readers to compare him favorably with the greatest devotional poets of the English language, and Keble must still be regarded as an innovative and influential force in English religious poetry.

Keble came from an old, established family in Gloucestershire with longtime ecclesiastical connections. He was the eldest of five children, two boys and three girls, of Sarah Maule Keble and John Keble , Sr. Keble's father was the vicar of Coln St. Aldwyn's and resided at Fairford. The senior John Keble was a Tory churchman of the traditional Catholic-minded school, and Keble the Tractarian...