Of Love and Angels: Poems for My Fiancee is a love-gift made by the author to celebrate his engagement. It is a collection of thirty love poems that melds romantic, earthly love with the love of God and the divine. The poetry attests to the sacredness of romantic love as a spiritual venture in our increasingly disenchanted world. The use of verse forms such as the heroic couplet and ballad and the application of traditional methods of rhyme and meter is a deliberate attempt to reconnect with the musicality of past poetics--to the lyric traditions of poetry and hymn in which Christianity is so abundantly rich. Free-verse compositions also feature throughout the collection and present an opportunity for contemplation on how both old and new forms alike can express romantic and spiritual sentiment in a way that resonates powerfully with our contemporary ways of life.

Christian Alexander Barkman is a fourth-year student at The College of the Holy Cross studying English and Religion. He will be pursuing a PhD in English Renaissance literature at the University of Tulsa following graduation from Holy Cross. His Catholic faith, his fiancée, and his family are his dearest blessings.