Francis Thompson: man and poet.

Francis Man and Poet, first published in 1960, is a critical examination of the life and work of Francis Thompson. Described by Chesterton as “the greatest poetic energy since Robert Browning,” Thompson holds a certain pride of place among English Catholic poets. For John Cowie Reid, that reputation is predominantly the product of an overemphasis on the theological or mystical merits of Thompon’s poetry, not its objective literary quality. Exploring Thompson’s happy childhood, his descent into homelessness and addiction, his maturation into a writer of stature, and his final days of ill-health, Reid is unapologetically a sterner critic of this talented but flawed man and poet,. Indeed, Reid considers his contribution to the literature on Thompson to be a helpful and necessary corrective to overstatements of the latter's talent. Equally vigorous and dispassionate, Francis Man and Poet is an absorbing study of an enigmatic, prodigiously talented but often improvident poet, whose poetry—deservedly or otherwise—sits alongside that of Wordsworth, Patmore, and Hopkins.

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