SOURCE: “The Christian Year,” in John Keble, Saint of Anglicanism, Mercer University Press, 1987, pp. 57-76.

In the following essay, Griffin provides a thematic analysis of The Christian Year, explaining the purpose behind Keble's collection of religious poetry.

The Christian Year was first published anonymously in 1827. A complete edition was published the following year when Keble added a series of poems in honor of certain state “feast days.” Most of his friends knew that Keble was the author of the book. Newman remarked briefly, “Keble's hymns are just out … they seem quite excellent.”¹ As I have earlier remarked, sales of the volume came to be one of the great success stories of the nineteenth century. The Christian Year was certainly important to the reader of poetry in the Victorian age.² Yet no one wrote about Keble's poetry during his lifetime. It was only with the edition of 1866 (the year...