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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... prayer . Prayer has two aspects : one as part of corporate worship and the other as an expression of personal devotion . As rural parish priests , Her- bert and Thomas presided at public services within worshipping com- munities for ...
... prayer testifieth that we acknowledge him our sovereign good [ Bk . V , ch . xxiii ] . Herbert's own remarks quoted above seem merely a gloss on those of Hooker . As eloquent as Hooker was , however , Herbert went him one further . In ...
... prayer in the life of a priest : prayer before the study of Scripture , prayer before eating , prayer before worship , prayer before preaching . Indeed , many of his poems have the form of prayers : prayers of praise , of petition , of ...
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 |