Richard Crashaw

Born in London around 1612 or 1613, Richard Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse and later at Pembroke College and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He became known for poetry shaped by deep religious feeling and by the ornate, image-filled style often linked with the Baroque and with the group now called the Metaphysical poets.

Crashaw's best-known work includes Steps to the Temple and other sacred poems that blend intellectual play with intense devotion. During the upheavals of the English Civil War period, he left England, converted to Roman Catholicism, and spent his final years on the continent.

He died in 1649 in Loreto, Italy. His poems remain memorable for their musical language, striking visual detail, and the way they push spiritual experience into passionate, imaginative art.