In the mid-nineteenth century, in the growing city of Nauvoo, Illinois, poets found ample publication outlets in the Times and Seasons, the Wasp, and the Nauvoo Neighbor. Others, however, penned poetry in private correspondence and personal diaries. They wrote of revelations, restored scriptures, prophecies, temples, and their testimonies of Jesus Christ. To these faithful psalmists, their religion served as inspiration for distinctive poetry. Psalms of Nauvoo: Early Mormon Poetry is a narrative collection of these poems. The purpose in contextualizing and publishing these poems is to provide a glimpse into the culture, life circumstances, religious heritage, and espoused doctrines of those early Latter-day Saints; by doing so this book offers readers the chance to also catch “the swift thought of God” as the poets penned it.

ISBN 978-0-8425-2886-3

Published in 2015