It never fails, if a boy should love a girl that he loses some sleep in the bargain. It never fails, when a young women first be a mother, that she be stricken now and again with fear and doubt, and sometime wonder many nights whether the child still breathes and should check on her. … Continue reading It Never Fails
To R. B. THE FINE delight that fathers thought; the strong Spur, live and lancing like the blowpipe flame, Breathes once and, quenchèd faster than it came, Leaves yet the mind a mother of immortal song. Nine months she then, nay years, nine years she long 5 Within her wears, bears, cares and … Continue reading Gerard Manley Hopkins Poem in Anticipation of College Talk
To be a disciple is fundamentally to be a learner. But while a geometry student submits his mind to a proof or theorem, a learner of Christ is called to submit his whole being to God. And while the student may come to internalize a truth, the disciple can come to embody God’s presence. This is because both Learning and discipleship happen through a process of poetic formation. In … Continue reading The Poetics of Faith and Learning, Part 4
The Poet made the measure fair; though couplet doth our error bare. Fond as we are of the rhyme, and pleasure in its perfect time, to find our own name writ in there, doth occasion dark despair, and do we add shame to shame when to Author lay the blame. But if the Poet be right Master, … Continue reading The Poet made the Measure Fair (Heroic Couplet, Part 2 of 2)
Not an if, but a when; trust not in beginnings, but the end. All the world’s lordly hopes shall expire as the smoke. Hope which is but vanity, a distraction from true sanity. Science shall never pose an impediment to this close. Surer than the poet’s rhyme comes completion to the line. And yet diversion do we seek … Continue reading Not an if, but a when (Heroic Couplet, Part 1 of 2)
We have begun to explore how man is a double creature, a being who is natural and yet transcendent. The last post listed a number of ways in which this might be the case. This post will begin to explore numbers 2, 3, and 7. We can do this by first asking: What does ‘poetry’ … Continue reading The Poetic Creature: Images and Originals Part VI.A
Same & Other 