John Henry Newman's Metrical Experiments: Poetic and Religious "Difficulties"
Recent work on Victorian religious poetry has argued that its meters tend to reinforce its content, with poetry of faith adopting regular, orderly meters and poetry of doubt turning to irregular or unusual meters. In this paper I argue that the poetry of John Henry Newman complicates this tendency,...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
University of Notre Dame
2017
|
In: |
Religion & literature
Year: 2017, Volume: 49, Issue: 3, Pages: 77-99 |
RelBib Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBF British Isles KDB Roman Catholic Church |
Further subjects: | B
DEVOTIONAL poetry
B Scholarships B FORM & Faith in Victorian Poetry & Religion (Book) B Newman, John Henry, 1801-1890 B Religious Poetry |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | Recent work on Victorian religious poetry has argued that its meters tend to reinforce its content, with poetry of faith adopting regular, orderly meters and poetry of doubt turning to irregular or unusual meters. In this paper I argue that the poetry of John Henry Newman complicates this tendency, as his devotional poetry is both highly orthodox and metrically experimental. To explain that seeming paradox, I turn to a word that reappears in his theological writings: difficulty. Newman's theology acknowledges difficulties without admitting doubt; likewise, his poetry's difficult meters are varied, unusual, and challenging, yet never abandon meter entirely. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
|