Poems: Pastoral and Psalm

This collection gathers verse from mid-nineteenth century America, where the pastoral tradition meets sacred contemplation. Benjamin Copeland writes in an era when poets still believed the natural world was a window onto the divine, and his poems perform this ancient transaction with sincere, unironic devotion. The pastoral pieces capture meadows at dawn, spring's return, the quiet theology of growing things, while the psalm-inspired works address grief, loss, and the hope that somehow persists beyond death. These are not poems that rush. They breathe slowly, inviting readers into a stillness that feels increasingly rare.