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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 22
... story , this grief , that Herbert returned again and again . Against it , all of Herbert's own griefs and perturbations of mind and spirit could be measured and ulti- mately absorbed as are those of any Christian's . The poem has a pecu ...
... story which , in the nature of things , Christ himself cannot tell , that of his own suffering , the story that may reach people whom his own words and actions alone cannot reach . It is to make the art ... of this kind of poetry , a ...
... story of the Cross was true , that Jesus the Son of God , died there for man's sins . The question is whether the individual can accept the consequences of that death , can by whatever means say " Thy will be done . " For Thomas the ...
Contents
Preface | 1 |
The Vocations of Priest and Poet | 13 |
Country Parsons | 36 |
Copyright | |
9 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Poets' Meeting: George Herbert, R.S. Thomas, and the Argument with God William J. McGill Limited preview - 2003 |