Aubrey De Vere

Domus Aurea: Poems for the Virgin Mary Aubrey De Vere

The Anglo-Irish poet Aubrey De Vere (1814-1902) wrote most of his poems for Mary at the request of Pope Pius IX, earning him the title of ?Our Lady?s Laureate.? They are remarkable both for their lyrical grace, freshness and theological precision. Phillip Medhurst has selected one hundred of his best, focussed on the hidden life and the heavenly work of the ?Dei Genetrix.? . . . . . . . . . A friend of eminent Catholic coverts Newman, Manning and Vaughan, as well as to poets Wordsworth and Tennyson, De Vere converted to Catholicism in 1851. Having studied metaphysics at university, and a champion in verse of historic Irish culture, he devoted the rest his life to writing poetry in a lyrical Romantic vein and essays on matters ?literary and ethical.? Although unmarried, he remained a layman. The poems here selected express his whole-hearted and intelligent assent to the heavenly role of Mary and the meaning of her life as expressed in the freshly-promulgated dogma of he Immaculate Conception (1854). Phillip Medhurst (born 1948), a graduate in English literature from the University of Oxford and a former Anglican priest, converted to Catholicism in 1988. After a distinguished career as a religious educator he has since established himself as poet and writer on Christian theology.