Anglicans discussion

Anyone have a favorite Anglican Poet or poem they want to share or discuss? This can be a place to do just that.

Well, I don't think you can beat John Donne. Except perhaps if you're George Herbert. But then you still can't beat John Donne.

My favorite of his:

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Oh that is so beautiful and dramatic. I love the ending 5 lines. Thanks for posting that one!

YES one of my favorites as well. The Donne is awesome. In my book Donne beats up Georgie Herbert in the schoolyard any day.

Question: Were Andrew Marvell and John Milton Christians? Like...Orthodox Christians...not that deist/unitarian kind.

Both were Christians. John Milton was a Puritain. Marvell was an Anglican of some kind.

Cool

This morning on the Mission St.Clare link the featured Saint of the day, was the poet George Herbert.

I like this one that was posted:

"The Flower"

How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are Thy returns! Even as the flowers in spring,
to which, besides their own demean,

The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.

Grief melts away
Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.
Who would have thought my shrivelled heart
could have recovered greenness? It was gone
quite underground, as flowers depart

To see their mother-root, when they have blown;
Where they together
all the hard weather,
dead to the world, keep house unknown.

These are Thy wonders, Lord of power,
Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell
and up to heaven in an hour;

Making a chiming of a passing-bell.

We say amiss
This or that is;
Thy word is all, if we could spell.
Oh, that I once past changing were,

Fast in Thy paradise, where no flower can wither!
Many a spring I shoot up fair,

Offering at heaven, growing and groaning thither;

Nor doth my flower

Want a spring shower,
My sins and I joining together.

But while I grow in a straight line,

Still upwards bent, as if heaven were mine own,
Thy anger comes, and I decline.

What frost to that? What pole is not the zone
Where all things burn,

When Thou dost turn,
And the least frown of Thine is shown?

And now in age I bud again;

After so many deaths I love and write;
I once more smell the dew and rain,

And relish versing. O my only Light,

It cannot be

That I am he
On whom Thy tempests fell all night.

These are Thy wonders, Lord of love,

To make us see we are but flowers that glide;
Which when we once can find and prove,

Thou hast a garden for us where to bide.

Who would be more,

Swelling through store,
Forfeit their paradise by their pride.

Here was another George Herbert Poem that was posted. It is so beautiful.

Love (III)

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin. But quicked-ey'd Love, Observing me grow slack

From my first entrance in, Drew near to me, sweetly questioning,

If I lack'd any thing.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:

Love said, You should be he. I the unkinde, engrateful? ah my deare,

I can not look on thee. Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I hav marr'd them: let my shame

Go where it doth deserve. And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame?

My deare, then I will serve. You must sit down, sayes love, and taste my meat:

So I did sit and eat.

Glory to God on High And on earth Peace good will toward man.

George Herbert
(1595-1633)

Herbert is one of my favorite poets. I have his complete works somewhere...seeing these here may inspire me to dig it up for Lenten reading.

Here is a Lewis Poem we just discussed in adult Sunday School last Sunday. I was really grabbed when it came out that the Unicorn is often a symbol of Christ. Read this poem in that light and perhaps it will make you think:

The Late Passenger


The sky was low, the sounding rain was falling dense and dark,
And Noah's sons were standing at the window of the Ark.

The beasts were in, but Japhet said, 'I see one creature more
Belated and unmated there come knocking at the door.'

'Well let him knock,' said Ham, 'Or let him drown or learn to swim.
We're overcrowded as it is; we've got no room for him.'

'And yet it knocks, how terribly it knocks,' said Shem, 'Its feet
Are hard as horn--but oh the air that comes from it is sweet.'

'Now hush,' said Ham, 'You'll waken Dad, and once he comes to see
What's at the door, it's sure to mean more work for you and me.'

Noah's voice came roaring from the darkness down below,
'Some animal is knocking. Take it in before we go.'

Ham shouted back, and savagely he nudged the other two,
'That's only Japhet knocking down a brad-nail in his shoe.'

Said Noah, 'Boys, I hear a noise that's like a horse's hoof.'
Said Ham, 'Why, that's the dreadful rain that drums upon the roof.'

Noah tumbled up on deck and out he put his head;
His face went grey, his knees were loosed, he tore his beard and said,

'Look, look! It would not wait. It turns away. It takes its flight.
Fine work you've made of it, my sons, between you all to-night!


'Even if I could outrun it now, it would not turn again
--Not now. Our great discourtesy has earned its high disdain.

'Oh noble and unmated beast, my sons were all unkind;
In such a night what stable and what manger will you find?

'Oh golden hoofs, oh cataracts of mane, oh nostrils wide
With indignation! Oh the neck wave-arched, the lovely pride!

'Oh long shall be the furrows ploughed across the hearts of men
Before it comes to stable and to manger once again,

'And dark and crooked all the ways in which our race shall walk,
And shrivelled all their manhood like a flower with broken stalk,

'And all the world, oh Ham, may curse the hour when you were born;
Because of you the Ark must sail without the Unicorn.'
~C.S. Lewis, Poems, "The Late Passenger" (1948)

Below is an awesome poem a friend shared with my husband:

Prayer
by George Herbert

Prayer, the Church’s banquet, Angels’ age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;
Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days’-world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land of spices, something understood

If anyone enjoys the poem, The Hound of Heaven, by Francis Thompson, a friend enlightened me about a good book on that poem, called, Poetry as Prayer:Hound of Heaven.

Oops, that link for Poetry as Prayer, did not work. Try this one:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77...

Love Herbert, but I love Donne more. Anyone know of any good modern Anglican poets?

I've read some good modern Christian poetry, because I edit a small Christian literary magazine, but I haven't found too many full books that impressed me, and most of the best stuff seems to be written by Catholics or Eastern Orthodox. I have read some Lewis, and, yes, it was bad. I quite liked Philip Rosenbaum's Holy Weeks Sonnets (I don't know what denomination he is).

I was thinking of Anglican poets. First Things has some good poems now and then. (It motivated me to subscribe--now I have moved overseas. Boo!)

Skylar wrote: "Love Herbert, but I love Donne more. Anyone know of any good modern Anglican poets?"

Yes, I know of a great modern Anglican poet who is in our group, Cindy Erlandson! I have her on my book list somewhere. She visited my church a few years ago and sent our church a copy of her poetry book. It was breathtakingly beautiful stuff. here is a link to her poetry book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96...

Charity, you write poetry, don't you. I recollect reading some poetry on your blog?

Skylar wrote: "Love Herbert, but I love Donne more. Anyone know of any good modern Anglican poets?"

I just got a Donne poetry book. Love it!

Oh, I remember coming across a couple of poems in First Things that I truly loved.

I highly recommend T.S. Eliot, whose poetry is difficult, but rich and beautiful. Any lover of Anglican poetry would benefit from reading him, especially "Ash Wednesday" and "Four Quartets."

From Eliot's "Four Quartets":

But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint—
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.

...And I just realized that there are already whole threads dedicated to Eliot. Oops! :D

I'm not Anglican, but I know poetry pretty well (I'm a poetry editor for a literary journal). Geoffrey Hill, an Anglican, IMHO, is probably the greatest living Christian poet (his name is increasingly coming up in the yearly Nobel musings). He's difficult, but worth it. I'll try and add more this weekend.

Steve wrote: "I'm not Anglican, but I know poetry pretty well (I'm a poetry editor for a literary journal). Geoffrey Hill, an Anglican, IMHO, is probably the greatest living Christian poet (his name is increasi..."
Geoffrey is a great poet. I just stumbled across the late Wilmer Mills (who died young in 2009). Though not Anglican, he was been described as a "contemporary John Donne" in style and content. I posted his poem "Double Vision" on my blog.

Karen L. wrote: "Below is an awesome poem a friend shared with my husband:

Prayer
by George Herbert

Prayer, the Church’s banquet, Angels’ age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, h..."

Eugene Peterson's book on prayer, "Reversed Thunder" is taken from this Herbert, I believe.

Charity wrote: "Here's Mills' poem. If you go to my link or do a search you can find an anthology of his poetry published by his wife.

DOUBLE VISION
At Waffle House, they fired her on the spot:
“You talk too much..."

Apologies-Goodreads didn't keep the original formatting of his poem!

Well, though he famously converted to Roman Catholicism, Gerard Manley Hopkins started out as an Anglican. (If that matters in this context). This poem is one of my favorites, religious or otherwise:

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

K. wrote: "Well, though he famously converted to Roman Catholicism, Gerard Manley Hopkins started out as an Anglican. (If that matters in this context). This poem is one of my favorites, religious or otherw..."

K, thanks so much for sharing that poem. That was truly beautiful! I love the image in the 3rd line, "It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil"

Charity wrote: "Here's Mills' poem. If you go to my link or do a search you can find an anthology of his poetry published by his wife.

DOUBLE VISION
At Waffle House, they fired her on the spot:
“You talk too much..."

Wow that is so touching! Thanks Charity :)

This thread has had me thinking about great poems with an Anglican connection since I stopped by last week (in third grade we got an assignment to list all the homonyms we could think of and I have never stopped working on that so...)

Anyway, I was listening to my iPod the other day and "The Holly and the Ivy," which is my very favorite Christmas carol, shuffled up. It always stops me in my tracks - though I was never too sure of the words. I have looked them up, and as the qualify as Anglican poetry (I think) I thought others might like a look:


The holly bears a blossom
As white as lily flower
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To be our sweet Saviour
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a prickle
As sharp as any thorn;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
On Christmas Day in the morn.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly bears a bark
As bitter as any gall;
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
For to redeem us all.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

The holly and the ivy
Now both are full well grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing of the choir

It's better when its sung, and it's really like, the tip top of civilization when sung by the King's Choir, Cambridge. Here's a link to that (I hope).



It the link failed, you can find this version by googling "The Holly and the Ivy Kings College".

This one? (Actually, I think I have a version by Anonymous 4 somewhere.) K, I think this is beautiful, and stands as poetry (and not just a great song).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7eHtD...

Steve wrote: "This one? (Actually, I think I have a version by Anonymous 4 somewhere.) K, I think this is beautiful, and stands as poetry (and not just a great song).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7eHtD..."


Hi Steve - That's the one! Thanks for actually managing to post a link.

K. wrote: "This thread has had me thinking about great poems with an Anglican connection since I stopped by last week (in third grade we got an assignment to list all the homonyms we could think of and I have..."

Oh, K, I love that song! It is indeed a great example of beautiful Anglican poetry :) I love the Kings Choir singing it.

Steve wrote: "This one? (Actually, I think I have a version by Anonymous 4 somewhere.) K, I think this is beautiful, and stands as poetry (and not just a great song).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7eHtD..."

Love Anonymous 4!