Tag Archives: Henry Vaughan

He Took Us with Him to the Heart of Things

Poet’s writing about the Ascension often focus on our tangled lives.

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Trumpian Darkness or True Light? Choose

Trump and many of his fans twist themselves in the perpetual torment of their resentment and anger. Henry Vaughan describes their state in “The World.”

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Strow the Way, Plants of the Day

Vaughan’s “Palm Sunday” draws its energy from spring growth.

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Dante’s Version of Heaven on Earth

In talking to Solomon in Paradiso, Dante gets a new vision of heaven on earth.

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Philip Pullman’s Unorthodox Afterlife

In “Amber Spyglass,” Pullman rebels against orthodox versions of the afterlife and creates his own.

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Pullman and Dante on the Afterlife

Pullman, drawing on Dante, provides one of the most sustaining accounts of the afterlife that I know.

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Join in the Joyful Symphony

Two Palm Sunday poems, by Lucille Clifton and Henry Vaughan, emphasize the vegetation imagery.

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Bright Shoots of Everlastingness

In “Retreat” Henry Vaughan’s childhood self is closer to God than his adult self, perhaps reflecting Christ’s admonition to receive the kingdom of God as a child would.

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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.

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