By Sharon C. Seelig

The poetry of Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne represents "an try to form their lives and verse round the truth of divine presence and influence," writes Sharon Seelig. the connection among trust and expression in those 3 metaphysical poets is the topic of this deeply perceptive study.

Each of those poets held to some degree the concept of twin truth, of the realm as indicative of a better truth, yet their responses to this practice range greatly―from the continued fight among God and the poet of The Temple, which eventually transforms the fabrics of way of life and worship; to the more challenging team spirit of Silex Scintillans, with its rigidity among illumination and resignation; to the ecstatic proclamations of Thomas Traherne, whose experience of divine truth first and foremost turns out so robust as to break the attribute metaphysical pressure among this global and the following. Seelig's learn proceeds from person poems to the entire paintings, exploring the relation of cosmology and non secular event to poetic shape.

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Additional resources for The Shadow of Eternity: Belief and Structure in Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne

Sample text

Only in this reflected sweetness, through Christ's atonement, can man meet God, "As sweet things traffick when they meet" (line 27). This is a remarkable poem, not only in the degree to which its verbal structure creates its meaning, but in its expression of a new lack of struggle and activity on the part of the poet. He has learned what John Donne meant when he said: "Every thing is immediatly done, which is done when thou wouldst have it done. " 40 Despite his earnestness he now rests wholly within the context of 40 Between Two Worlds God's law, which like the laws of optics acts with or without our permission.

He has learned what John Donne meant when he said: "Every thing is immediatly done, which is done when thou wouldst have it done. " 40 Despite his earnestness he now rests wholly within the context of 40 Between Two Worlds God's law, which like the laws of optics acts with or without our permission. But the changing of perspective in Herbert's poem is no optical illusion; it is the true vision of heaven created by God's mercy. In "The Odour" man does not see through a glass darkly but rather finds true identity only insofar as he is a reflection of Christ.

By that I knew that thou wast in the grief, To guide and govern it to my relief, Making a scepter of the rod. (lines 1-4) In the fourth poem sorrows continue, battering the soul until even this sense of direction is lost: the persona's abject state may be compared to the dark night of the soul of Saint John of the Cross. 32 Between Two Worlds Nothing performs the task of life: The elements are let loose to fight, And while I live, trie out their right. (lines 16-18) Yet by the end of the poem, the persona envisions his regeneration.

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