A new book on the psychology of life-changing lit has alerted me to some great passages.
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Tag Archives: George Herbert
Tough Lives Need Poetry’s Toughness
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Love (3)", bibliotherapy, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jan Mukarovsky, Jeanette Winterson, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
Here I Bloom for a Short Hour Unseen
In “Sic Vita” Thoreau uses the image of plucked flowers to wrestle with the meaning of life and death.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Each and All", "They Are All Gone into the World of Light", "Sic Vita", existential wrestling, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Vaughan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Comments closed
Hawthorne Explains the Eternal Sin
Hawthorne explores what Jesus means by the “eternal sin” in a number of stories, including “Scarlet Letter.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Altar", Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, eternal sin, Ethan Brand, Man of Adamant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Sin Comments closed
God as a Stern but Loving Gardener
Herbert’s Lenten poem “Paradise,” about the pruning necessary to ensure growth, literally prunes the line endings.
A Love Beyond Knowledge & Fame
George Herbert’s “Pearl” explains how he chose a spiritually rewarding life over a promising court life.
Scraping One’s Knees on Jacob’s Ladder
Denise Levertov draws on the Jacob’s dream about a stairway to heaven to capture poetry’s transcendent qualities.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Altar", "Circus Animals Desertion", "Jacob's Ladder", 9-11 poems, Denise Levertov, Lucille Clifton, sacred spaces, Transcendence, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
Literature’s Unique Spiritual Insights
An extended reflection upon the relationship between religion and literature.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Collar", "Egrets", "Flower", Brothers Karamazov, Flannery O'Connor, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Good Man Is Hard to Find, John Milton, King Lear, literature and religion, Mary Oliver, Paradise Lost, Religion, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Herbert Poem that Converted Weil
George Herbert’s “Love (3)” prompted a religious breakthrough in French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Love (3)", affliction, religious doubt, Simone Weil Comments closed
The Real Temple Can’t Be Destroyed
Like Jesus, George Herbert (in “Scion”) sees the temple, not as a physical structure, but as the human heart.