Love’s Exquisite Freedom

The newest installment in Welcome Books' Art & Poetry series, Maya Angelou's Touched by an Angel pairs the lyrical grace of Maya Angelou with the exquisite art of Edward Burne-Jones. Angelou's poem of love's transcendant power finds a striking, sensual complement in Burne-Jones, a star of 19th century Britain's Aesthetic movement.  Burne-Jones continually examined themes of love, while persuasively arguing for the value of art as an object of beauty.  Fittingly, many of his works incorporate depictions of angels in various guises, as manifestations of love, redemption, and guidance, even as the Roman god Cupid.

In Maya Angelou's Touched by an Angel, Burne-Jones' contention that art reveals a "a light better than any light that ever shone" is tempered by Angelou's naturalism and earnestness. The combination is an enchanting, powerful exploration of the redemptive quality of love and the unbidden pleasure of emotion.