The Hundredfold is a tapestry of hymns, monologues, and short lyrics knit together as one book-length poem in praise of Christ in all his startling humanity. Drawing from the riches of the English poetic tradition—meter, rhyme, music—the poet considers the mysterious man from Nazareth and the world he came to set on fire with splendor. 

Having made a career translating the Italian masters Dante and Tasso, Anthony Esolen now puts on the dusty mantle of such English craftsmen as Donne, Milton, and Hopkins in his first book of original contemplative poetry. The Hundredfold contains dramatic monologues set in first-century Greece and Palestine; lyrical meditations on creation, longing, failure, modern emptiness, and unshakeable hope; and twenty-one brand-new hymns, set to such traditional melodies as “Picardy” and “Old One-Hundred-Twenty-Fourth”. 

The book includes an introduction with diamond-sharp insights into English poetic form—at a time when form is so often misunderstood, if not dismissed. It provides an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and poets themselves, as well as those who simply read poetry for pleasure.

“In an age of ugliness and transgression, beauty is an act of mercy, a sanctification of the human experience. In creating this exceptional work of poetry and song in praise of Jesus Christ, Esolen offers readers an experience of beauty as life-giving water in a desert.” — Most Reverend Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia 

“ A hundredfold new pleasures from one of America's finest essayists. Buy two. One to keep and one to give to a cherished friend.”— Maggie Gallagher , Executive Director, Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship 

ldquo; How does one describe a work as rare, as priceless as this? Nourishment for the malnourished soul. Food for those hungry for beauty. Manna in the desert of our postmodern waste land. Lembas for sojourners in Mordor. All we need to do is taste and see that it is good!”— Joseph Pearce, Author, Literature: What Every Catholic Should Know 

“ Anthony Esolen is one of the best writers in the world today. Profound thinker, engaging storyteller, translator of Dante, lyrical lover of hymns— it is not surprising that he should burst into song. Not surprising, but still astonishing to encounter his poetry.”— Dale Ahlquist, President, Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton; Author, Knight of the Holy Ghost 

“ After mounting a much-needed defense of formal poetry, Anthony Esolen invites us to read, and to savor, his own much-needed attempts to bring music, meaning, and a sense of wonder back into poetry.”— Louis Markos, Professor of English, Houston Baptist University; Author, On the Shoulders of Hobbits 

“ In The Hundredfold Anthony Esolen restores lay consciousness of poetry's high beauty and deep pathos by new creation, original poems and hymns which give fresh voice to the legacy we have in Holy scripture. Bravo!”— David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities, Baylor University