A Form of Sound Words: The Religious Poetry of Christopher Smart

Traditionally, Christopher Smart has been represented as a mystical and eccentric poet, a colorful visionary of only peripheral importance to our understanding of eighteenth-century literature. This study challenges that view, offering a reassessment of Smart's work and examining the age in which he wrote and his place in it. Guest reappraises his religious poetry in the context of theories of language and natural philosophy, as well as in the context of a vast range of writing--from private devotions and sermons, to hymns and biblical criticism--demonstrating the pervasive and complex significance of religion in the period.