The Angel of Thought and Other Poems

Angels, flowers and painted gestures guide Ethel Allen Murphy's reflections on faith and beauty. Her short collection of verse responds to works by Fra Angelico, Botticelli and Dürer, including scenes of the Annunciation, the Visitation and Mary with the Christ child. An angel's trumpet becomes an image of thought moving across the world, while a lifted hand prompts reflection on prayer and acceptance.

Several poems use the sonnet form to hold together tenderness, wonder and the anticipation of sorrow. The Madonna poems consider a mother's love beside the larger meaning of her child's life, and the angel with a jasmine wreath offers an image of peace amid earthly struggle. A final prayer asks for renewed strength when artistic effort falls short of ideal beauty. Readers interested in devotional verse or the relationship between poetry and painting will find the poems closely attentive to faces, hands, light and other visible details.