Carcanet Press - Selected Writings

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Excerpt
Editor
Contents
Awards
Reviews

           One star
       Is better far
    Than many precious stones:
One sun, which is above in glory seen,
    Is worth ten thousand golden thrones:
    A juicy herb or spire of grass
    In useful virtue, native green,
         An emerald doth surpass,
Hath in't more value, though less seen.
                from THE APOSTASY

Thomas Traherne's poems were discovered in London in 1896 and originally assigned in error to Henry Vaughan. Later scholarship has established their true authorship. Traherne (1637-1674) was a remarkable religious writer. The son of a Hereford shoe-maker, he was well-educated, took religious orders and pursued a varied career. Prior to the discovery of his poems, he was best known for his Centuries of Meditations, of which passages from the third are most widely anthologised. The visionary precision of his prose characterises his verse as well: he is not an altogether orthodox mystic.

Dick Davis presents a selection from the full range of Traherne's poetry and prose and provides a critical and biographical introduction.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

The Author to the Critical Peruser

The Salutation

Wonder

Eden

Innocence

The Preparative

Dumbness

Silence

My Spirit

Nature

The Person

Love

The Rapture

Desire

On News

The Apostasy

Solitude

Bells

Christendom

Shadows in the Water

On leaping over the Moon

Dreams

Insatiableness

Hosanna

An Hymm upon St Bartholomew's Day

On the Bible

from The First Century

from The Second Century

from The Third Century

Dick Davis

Dick Davis was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1945, and educated at the universities of Cambridge (B.A. and M.A. in English Literature) and Manchester (Ph.D. in Medieval Persian Literature). He lived in Iran for eight years from 1970 to 1978, and also for some time in both Italy and Greece. He ... read more

Awards won by Dick Davis Winner, 1981 Royal Society of Literature Award (Seeing the World)

Praise for Dick Davis 'Original poetry and translated Persian verse weave together into a single life, translation as border and as invitation.'
A.E. Stallings, The TLS
'...throughout Love in Another Language, a strange perfusion of elements is at work, at once familiar and exotic; there are bizarre depths, weird echoes, beneath the seemingly traditional and seemingly quite "English surfaces of the poems... Dick Davis's collected poems of over forty-three years constitute what the great Persian poet Nizami called a "makhzan-i-asrar", a treasure-house of mysteries and perfected marvels.'

Eric Ormsby, the TLS

'It is marvelous to find a poet whose poetry lives through its metre. His handling of it is masterful, and you are never aware of the effort. And the language is exact but relentless, like the perceptions . . . Davis is one of the best poets around.'
Thom Gunn

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Selected Writings Thomas Traherne Edited by Dick Davis Categories: 17th Century, Christianity Imprint: FyfieldBooks Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (128 pages) 9780856352317 Out of Stock Description Excerpt Editor Contents Awards Reviews One star Is better far Than many precious stones: One sun, which is above in glory seen, Is worth ten thousand golden thrones: A juicy herb or spire of grass In useful virtue, native green, An emerald doth surpass, Hath in't more value, though less seen. from THE APOSTASY Thomas Traherne's poems were discovered in London in 1896 and originally assigned in error to Henry Vaughan. Later scholarship has established their true authorship. Traherne (1637-1674) was a remarkable religious writer. The son of a Hereford shoe-maker, he was well-educated, took religious orders and pursued a varied career. Prior to the discovery of his poems, he was best known for his Centuries of Meditations, of which passages from the third are most widely anthologised. The visionary precision of his prose characterises his verse as well: he is not an altogether orthodox mystic. Dick Davis presents a selection from the full range of Traherne's poetry and prose and provides a critical and biographical introduction. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION A NOTE ON THE TEXT The Author to the Critical Peruser The Salutation Wonder Eden Innocence The Preparative Dumbness Silence My Spirit Nature The Person Love The Rapture Desire On News The Apostasy Solitude Bells Christendom Shadows in the Water On leaping over the Moon Dreams Insatiableness Hosanna An Hymm upon St Bartholomew's Day On the Bible from The First Century from The Second Century from The Third Century Dick Davis Dick Davis was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1945, and educated at the universities of Cambridge (B.A. and M.A. in English Literature) and Manchester (Ph.D. in Medieval Persian Literature). He lived in Iran for eight years from 1970 to 1978, and also for some time in both Italy and Greece. He ... read more Awards won by Dick Davis Winner, 1981 Royal Society of Literature Award (Seeing the World) Praise for Dick Davis 'Original poetry and translated Persian verse weave together into a single life, translation as border and as invitation.' A.E. Stallings, The TLS '...throughout Love in Another Language, a strange perfusion of elements is at work, at once familiar and exotic; there are bizarre depths, weird echoes, beneath the seemingly traditional and seemingly quite "English surfaces of the poems... Dick Davis's collected poems of over forty-three years constitute what the great Persian poet Nizami called a "makhzan-i-asrar", a treasure-house of mysteries and perfected marvels.' Eric Ormsby, the TLS 'It is marvelous to find a poet whose poetry lives through its metre. His handling of it is masterful, and you are never aware of the effort. And the language is exact but relentless, like the perceptions . . . Davis is one of the best poets around.' Thom Gunn	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! Anvil Press Poetry Aspects of Portugal Audio Books Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Carcanet Poetry FyfieldBooks Lintott Press Little Island Press Lives and Letters OxfordPoets PN Review Sheep Meadow Press The Carcanet Blog New Poetries VIII: Sinad Morrissey on Conor Cleary read more The Earliest Witnesses: G.C. Waldrep read more Conor Cleary: NPVIII: Meet the Contributor read more New Poetries VIII: Tara Bergin on Suzannah V. Evans read more Suzannah V. Evans: NPVIII: Meet the Contributor read more New Poetries VIII: Andrew Wynn Owen on Tristram Fane Saunders read more
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Selected Writings

Thomas Traherne

Edited by Dick Davis