Poets' Meeting: George Herbert, R.S. Thomas, and the Argument with GodGeorge Herbert (1593-1633) and R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), each a major English poet and an Anglican priest, lived in very different times, one before the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and industrialization, and one following. Yet the two men and their poetry bear striking resemblances: Both loved nature and music, both were pacifists, and both struggled with the claims of faith, the nature of the spiritual life, and the recurrent silences of God. This book demonstrates that when their lives and poems are studied side by side, each man enhances our understanding of the other. The first essay deals with their sense of calling as priests and poets. The work then explores topics that relate to their roles as parish priests: ministry, the Bible, the Eucharist, and prayer. Several essays follow dealing with broader questions of the human condition: faith, sin, love, reason and science, and nature. The work concludes by considering their poems about Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. |
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... eyes wintering me . Some are like blonde dolls their joints twisted ; life in its brief play was a bit rough Some fumble with thick tongues for words and are deaf ; shouting their faint names I listen ; they are far off , the echoes ...
... eyes than it probably is in the eyes of anybody else [ Selected Prose , p . 86 ] . Being a poet is studying the works of other poets , observing the world around one , developing technique , struggling to balance sound and sense : " The ...
... eyes to the price we pay for our so - called progress , and , at best , remind us where we truly belong . For as Coleridge said , ' The medium by which spir- its understand each other is the freedom they possess in common ' [ p . 99 ] ...
Contents
Preface | 1 |
The Vocations of Priest and Poet | 13 |
Country Parsons | 36 |
Copyright | |
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Poets' Meeting: George Herbert, R.S. Thomas, and the Argument with God William J. McGill Limited preview - 2003 |