The Secret Library – Interesting Literature

Book Review: East of the Wardrobe

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys a new study of the unexpected worlds of C. S. Lewis

December has always been the month read C. S. Lewis. Perhaps it was growing up reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the land of Narnia being in the grip of a perpetual (if Christmas-free) winter; perhaps it’s because I have always had a soft spot for that moment in the 1993 Richard Attenborough biopic of Lewis’s life and love, Shadowlands, in which the choir of Oxford University sing ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ as Lewis negotiates the new relationship that is blossoming between him and Joy Davidman.

The Meaning of Hulme’s ‘Romanticism is Spilt Religion’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Romanticism is spilt religion’ is a famous phrase from the writings of T. E. Hulme (1883-1917), who has been described as the first modernist poet writing in English and whose prose writings – on modern poetry, politics, and modern art among other things – are among the most important early essays and manifestos for modernism in the English language. But what did Hulme mean when he declared that ‘romanticism is spilt religion’?

The Meaning of ‘Blessed Are the Meek: For They Shall Inherit the Earth’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.’ It’s one of the best-known and most widely quoted utterances from the New Testament, and it appears in a relatively short section of the Bible which is replete with famous utterances. But what does Jesus mean by ‘blessed are the meek’? Who qualifies as ‘the meek’, and why are they worthy of blessing?

The Meaning and Origin of ‘Poets Are the Unacknowledged Legislators of the World’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’ is one of the best-known and most frequently quoted lines from the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), but, like John Donne’s ‘no man is an island’, it doesn’t come from a poem but from a work of prose. But what Shelley means by ‘poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’ is not entirely clear without further analysis and examination, and this is before we consider whether his claim is categorically true or not.

The Curious Symbolism of Autumn in Literature and Myth

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Autumn is at once symbolic of plenty, ripening, harvest, and abundance; and, at the same time, a symbol of decay, decline, old age, and even death, with associations of things being past their prime. To understand this we need to look at how writers have depicted autumn in poetry and other literature.