Poetry of the English Martyrs

In 1581, a young Englishman named Henry Walpole attended the execution of the Jesuit Edmund Campion. As Campion was hung, drawn and quartered, Walpole stood close enough to be spattered with his holy blood. Though Campion’s fame in England was already great, Walpole would amplify it further with a splendid, lengthy poem, which became enormously popular among English Catholics—so popular that the man who printed the book had his ears cut off as punishment.

In his poem Walpole wrote:
We cannot fear a mortal torment, we,
This martyr’s blood hath moistened all our hearts,
Whose parted quarters when we chance to see
We learn to play the constant Christian’s parts.

This was more than wordplay: Two years after Campion’s death, Walpole became a priest, and was himself hung for the faith in 1595.

St. Henry Walpole was not the only martyr who wrote poems. The 16th and 17th centuries produced a number of men whose courageous faith was accompanied by prodigious learning and literary talent. St. Thomas More wrote poems while languishing in the Tower of London. Another Jesuit martyr, St. Robert Southwell, powerfully influenced the later movement of “metaphysical poetry”, including the greatest Protestant poets of succeeding centuries—such as George Herbert and John Donne.

The poetry of the English martyrs has been collected in an anthology called Lyra Martyrum.