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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... never venture from under your roof Once the night's come ; the blinds all down For fear of the moon's bum rubbing the window . Take a word from me and keep your nose In the black Book , so it won't be tempted To go sniffing where it's ...
... never fully , never finally , for metaphor remains approximate and the human mind is imperfect . Though he spent his entire active ministry in rural Wales , Thomas did not write a version of The Country Parson . Still , Thomas's autobio ...
... never pantheistic , and indeed moved increasingly toward a conviction that our best intimations of the presence of God come from his absence , of his comings from his goings . But he never reached a point of final denial . “ Is absence ...
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 |