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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... references are more allusive , though he too wrote poems whose titles made specific biblical references ( “ Hebrews 12:29 " and “ John 8 " ) . And in “ The Bright Field ” ( Laboratories of the Spirit ) , he used the same Matthean text ...
... references to it . In all his references , we find affirmations of God's goodness and redemptive love . At times he also used them to empha- size his own failings and shortcomings as he struggled with his calling , both as a priest and ...
... references to the ravages of war , yet he did not write what we might call pacifist poetry . To call it that is as limiting and inadequate as to label him a rural poet or a Welsh national- ist , or even a religious poet , when what we ...
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 |