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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... sense of man's propensity to do evil and in the specific sense of their own personal shortcomings . Not surprisingly Herbert was more preoccupied with the latter . While he often spoke universally , he made no specific ref- erences to ...
... cannot grasp it with our senses , only sense it momentarily , a rainbow arcing over our world that vanishes if we pursue it . In The Stones of the Field Thomas wrote : And God is the weight that bends the bough Of Cross - pollination 159.
... sense of unworthiness that held him back . It is also the critical lesson for all who would lead the Christian life . " The Windows " is the last in a sequence of poems early in The Temple about church archi- tecture and appointments ...
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 |