Angels are undeniably associated with religion and more usually Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Often they are seen as supernatural beings, benevolent celestial intermediaries interposed between God, Heaven and humanity.

They are protectors, our heavenly guides, and the servants of God. They are also His Messengers. The faithful seek their blessing, their help. A visitation is a miraculous event, filled with reverence, awe and shared with the wider community as a sign that faith has reward.

Other religions also make note of angelic contributions including Sikhism and Zoroastrianism. There is also the unnerving distinction that there are ‘fallen Angels’ that seep dark, malevolent forces into the world. They tempt, they betray, they lead us where it is not safe to go.

But faith once more resolves the dilemma; good will overcome evil. And whether a believer or not, there is a comfort that the angels of our hearts are the ones of love, of care and compassion.

Obviously there are complications, a fact that our classic poets through the centuries, including Alexander Pope, Edmund Spenser, Radclyffe Hall and Hafiz, use as they write verse to explain, to reveal and to help us understand exactly why Angels are so prevalent amongst our thoughts.

1 - The Poetry of Angels - An Introduction

2 - I Felt an Angel by Anonymous

3 - The Angel by William Blake

4 - The Angel's Visit by Charlotte L. Forten Grimke

5 - The Angels by Rainer Maria Rilke

6 - The Woman and the Angel by Robert William Service

7 - The Man to the Angel by George William Russell

8 - Ex Ore Infantium by Francis Thompson

9 - The Child Angel by Rabindranath Tagore

10 - A Poem for Children with Thoughts On Death by Jupiter Hammon

11 - The Guardian Angel by Robert Browning

12 - The Angel's Message by Clara Ann Thompson

13 - Angels From the Realms of Glory by James Montgomery

14 - Wondrous Sight For Men and Angels by Ann Griffiths

15 - The Ministry of Angels by Edmund Spenser

16 - The Angels of Man by Bliss Carman

17 - The Two Angels by Radclyffe Hall

18 - My Sweet Crushed Angel by Hafiz

19 - Two or Three Angels by Stephen Crane

20 - The Lost Chord by Adelaide Anne Proctor

21 - Israfel by Edgar Allan Poe

22 - The Song of the Seven Archangels by Ernest Rhys

23 - The Angel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov

24 - To.... by James Monroe Whitfield

25 - Angels Everywhere by Rosa Mulholland

26 - An Angel in the House by James Henry Leigh Hunt

27 - The Angel That Presided by William Blake

28 - A Cradle Song by W. B. Yeats

29 - Playmates by Emily Dickinson

30 - Once in a Saintly Passion by James Thomson

31 - To Rosemary, on the Methods by Which She Might Become an Angel by Stephen Vincent Benet

32 - It Was Wrong To Do This, Said the Angel by Stephen Crane

33 - Angels, in the Early Morning by Emily Dickinson

34 - The Angel and the Clown by Vachel Lindsay

35 - Behind the Scenes. Empire by Arthur Symons

36 - To Be An Angel by Francois Couperin

37 - The Stillness Of Angels by Daniel Sheehan

38 - One Evening by Guillaume Apollinaire

39 - A Poor Torn Heart, A Tattered Heart by Emily Dickinson

40 - Drifts That Bar My Door by Adah Isaacs Menken

41 - Sonnet CLIV – The Little Love-God by William Shakespeare

42 - By the Sides of Angels by Daniel Sheehan

43 - Rosa Mundi by Arthur Symons

44 - The Willowwood Sonnets. Sonnet I by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

45 - A Lost Angel by Ellis Parker Butler

46 - Sonnet CXLIV – Two Loves I Have by William Shakespeare

47 - Angel or Demon by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

48 - Paradise Lost (Extract) by John Milton

49 - The Swamp Angel by Herman Melville

50 - Verse XX - An Extract from The City of Dreadful Night by James Thomson BV

51 - The Avenging Angel by William Winifred Campbell

52 - Celia, Sleeping or Singing by Thomas Stanley

53 - Angel Spirits of Sleep by Robert Seymour Bridges

54 - The Dark Angel by Lionel Johnson

55 - Why Has An Angel Died by Daniel Sheehan

56 - Angels Of Sunderland, In Memoriaum, June 16th 1893 by John Hartley

57 - The Dying Christian To His Soul by Alexander Pope