Two Poets of the Oxford Movement: John Keble and John Henry Newman

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Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1996 - Biography & Autobiography - 296 pages
This book examines the poetry of two important figures in the Oxford Movement, a campaign that began by asserting the independence of the English Church from secular power and that went on to Catholicize the Protestant color of Anglicanism in the early nineteenth century. John Keble and John Henry Newman both conceived poetry as the instrument of religious persuasion: Keble through his Christian Year which, although it antedated the movement, was hailed as its Baptist cry; and Newman through his more aggressive contributions to Lyra Apostolica. After a brief introduction in which he discusses the nature of Tractarian poetry - members of the movement were given that nickname - author Rodney Stenning Edgecombe presents detailed readings of the two collections, stressing their value as poetry rather than as theological documents. He argues that both men possessed real lyric gifts which shifts in taste and the theological emphasis of earlier commentaries have tended to obscure.

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Contents

The Nature of Tractarian Poetry
15
Kebles Christian Year Surveyed I
35
Kebles Christian Year Surveyed II
110
Newmans Contribution to Lyra Apostolica I
168
Newmans Contribution to Lyra Apostolica II
214
Epilogue
256
Notes
260
Bibliography
280
Index
291
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Page 22 - Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste His works. Admitted once to his embrace, Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before : Thine eye shall be instructed ; and thine heart Made pure shall relish, with divine delight Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.
Page 23 - Big with the vanity of state ; But transient is the smile of Fate ! A little rule, a little sway, A sun-beam in a winter's day, Is all the proud and mighty have Between the cradle and the grave.
Page 23 - That cast an awful look below; Whose ragged walls the ivy creeps, And with her arms from falling keeps; So both a safety from the wind On mutual dependence find. 'Tis now the raven's bleak abode; 'Tis now th...

References to this book

John Keble in Context
Kirstie Blair
No preview available - 2004

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