By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Of all the major symbols in literature, art, and religion, perhaps no symbol is more ambiguous and double-edged than fire. Fire symbolism can simultaneously denote illumination and purification and destruction and pain. What are some of the main meanings of fire symbolism in literature and art over the centuries?
A reading of a classic Donne poem by Dr Oliver Tearle
‘Batter my heart, three-person’d God’: a typically blunt and direct opening for a John Donne poem, from a poet who is renowned for his bluff, attention-grabbing opening lines. This poem, written using the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet form, sees Donne calling upon God to take hold of him and consume him, in a collection of images that are at once deeply spiritual and physically arresting.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Poetry and the church have enjoyed a long interconnected history, but what are the very best English poems about churches specifically, rather than simply ‘the church’? What great poems have been set in churchyards or among pews, at the altar or in the church crypt? The selection below constitutes our attempt to compile a ‘top ten’ of the finest church poems in all of English literature.