Believing in Poetry

: lyric poems and the search for religious resonance

Abstract

The two books focused on in this Critical Analysis were written to ascertain whether in the present United Kingdom, and other parts of the world, lyric poetry might be as compelling a vehicle as liturgical or doctrinal language for exploring a human resonance that could still be termed ‘religious’. The various forms of creative curation utilised in the books, attempts to open reflective spaces for the general reader, are identified as models of an imaginative reading practice that is both personal and dialogical. Lyric poetry, with its containment of epiphanic experience and its reach towards a distilled and broadened comprehension, is revealed as a welcome, and often surprising, channel for encountering a religious resonance that persists, and remains recoverable, in our ‘secular’ societies.

Date of Award	25 Jan 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Andrew Hiscock (Supervisor) & Helen Wilcox (Supervisor)