6/11/2023 0 Comments The shepherd poemIt was, in its own way, an audacious poem, in its implicit rejection of the ethos behind Beattie’s Minstrel : 1 the reviewers had, some of them, asked for a long poem, but they would not have expected this panoramic view of country life, the combination of humour and compassion, love of seclusion and rage at the evils of enclosure. In the long poem ‘The Village Minstrel’ that headed the 1821 collection Clare had, with some success, been able to place his response to the natural world in a wider context which embraced the whole village community. In his use of the sonnet form, for example, Clare had shown that there was another way of responding to the essentially dramatic qualities of nature than that suggested by the tradition stemming from Thomson: but he could hardly write nothing but sonnets. April 30, 2023, the Fourth Sunday of Easter: This passage is the result of multiple stages of editing as. There were certainly positive achievements to point to, both in Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, and in The Village Minstrel. The resulting shepherd metaphor is therefore quite complex. Much of the criticism was justified, and Taylor and Hessey were aware that something rather different had to be tried if Clare wasn’t going to fade completely from the public eye. Several reviewers had commented on the apparent sameness of all his work, the lack of thinking in the poetry, the tendency to stop at observation. There was the chance to consider and reflect on what he had so far achieved, and what direction his poetry might take. ![]() I say from my heart, I could ask for nothing more.After the publication of his first two collections of poems, Clare’s horizons were widened. Ten miles away people did not know his name, but his own congregation regarded no other, and in the Lord’s presence it was well known, for it was often mentioned when he laid down his trust and arrived at the other side, many whom he had fed and guided, and restored and comforted till he saw them through the gates, were waiting to receive their shepherd-minister, and as they stood around him before the Lord, he, of all men, could say without shame, “Behold, Lord, Thine under-shepherd and the flock Thou didst give me.” He was a head to every widow, a father to the orphans, and the friend of all lowly, discouraged, unsuccessful souls. People turned to him as by an instinct in their joys and sorrows men consulted him in the crises of life. “One’s heart goes back from this eager, restless, ambitious age (and this was written many years ago) to the former days, and recalls with fond recollection the pastor of his youth, who has lived all his ministry in one place, and was buried where he was ordained – who had baptized a child, and married her and baptized her children – who knew all the ins and outs of his people’s character, and carried family history for generations in his head – who was ever thinking of his people, watching over them, till his familiar figure on the street linked together the past and the present and heaven and earth, and opened a treasure house of sacred memories. This week I came across a page entitled, “The Shepherd-Minister,” and as I read it, I admired this ideal of pastoral ministry that is almost extinct now. The shepherd promises to wash Gods clothes, to bring God milk to drink, to comb Gods hair and kill his lice, and other. The story tells how Moses one day happens to overhear an ignorant shepherd praying to God. ![]() ![]() There are even some “homemade” notes typed and inserted by a previous owner. Moses and the Shepherd ( Persian: ) is a story from the 13th-century Sufi work Masnavi, by the Persian poet Rumi. ![]() I often open it to see if there is some poem or quotation that would have special significance for a person whose service I am conducting. Some years ago at some used book store, I found a little gem: it was a box entitled, “A Living Hope.” It is a collection of poems, quotes, and thoughts for funeral services.
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