John Gatta’s “Spirits of Place” is helping me understand why I have chosen to retire in my home town. Wordsworth, Stowe, Homer, and Frost help out as well.
Also posted in Homer, Robinson (Marilynne), Stowe (Harriet Beecher), Wordsworth (William) | Tagged "Death of the Hired Man", "Pulley", George Herbert, Harriet Beecher Stowe, home, Homer, John Gatta, Odyssey, retirement, Robert Frost, Sewanee, Tintern Abbey, Uncle Tom's Cabin, William Wordsworth | Psalm 23 has an image which may help power one of George Herbert’s most beloved poems.
George Herbert, never afraid to go toe-to-toe with God, grapples with his tormenting faith in “Affliction (1).”
George Herbert poetry is admirable in the way he wrestles with his spiritual doubts. He may owe a debt to “The Book of Job,” where we also see such wrestling.
Jesus learned to accept a Canaanite woman at his table and George Herbert learns that he belongs at that table. We can use them as models as we face refugees and immigrants.
St. Augustine, George Herbert, and Charlotte Bronte all write about spiritual restlessness.
George Herbert rewrites the 23rd psalm in subtle ways, turning the Lord in the “God of Love” and filling the cup with the eucharist.
Levertov uses to story of Jacob’s Ladder to describe the miracle of poetry.
Flannery O’Connor, like George Herbert, found her Christian faith regularly challenged by deep despair.
