Spanning 4,000 years of world literature, Poetry for the Spirit gathers 600 poems by more than 250 poets. In addition to hundreds of masterworks in English, there are poems translated from such languages as Sanskrit, Egyptian, Hindi, Persian, Hebrew, Chinese, and Homeric Greek, including selections from the great epics and meditations: the Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Tao Te Ching. Among the great writers represented are ancient and medieval poets (Homer, Lu Yun, Dante, Rumi, Judah Halevi); metaphysical poets (Donne, Vaughan, Traherne); mystic and religious poets (Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Herbert, Hopkins, Christina Rossetti); and visionary poets of a more secular bent (Blake,Shelley, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats, Rilke, Stevens, and Ginsberg).