Francis Thompson (1859–1907) was an English mystic and poet. Thompson went to medical school when he was 18, but left home at the age of 26 to pursue a life of writing. He was homeless for three years, becoming an opium addict and supporting himself through whatever means available. A married couple read his poetry and took him into their home 1888, and in 1893 he published his first book, “Poems”. This fantastic collection of poetry will appeal to all lovers of the form and is not to be missed by those who have read and enjoyed other work by Thompson. The poems include: “Before Her Portrait in Youth”, “To a Poet Breaking Silence”, “Manus Animam Pinxit”, “A Carrier-Song”, “Scala Jacobi Portaque Eburnea”, “Gilded Gold”, “Her Portrait”, “Miscellaneous Poems”, “To the Dead Cardinal of Westminster”, “A Fallen Yew”, “Dream-Tryst”, “A Corymbus for Autumn”, etc. This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with a chapter from Benjamin Franklin Fisher's “Francis Thompson, Essays” (1917).
