The English Poetic Mind (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. A Metaphysical Study of English Poetry, Christian Imagination, and the Visionary Power of LanguageBy Charles Williams
Length7h 19m
About this audiobook
The English Poetic Mind is Charles Williams's ambitious meditation on the continuity of English poetry, less a conventional history than a searching account of how the poetic imagination apprehends reality. Moving among major English poets with a critic's precision and a metaphysical poet's intensity, Williams traces recurring habits of vision: order, incarnation, image, and the charged relation between language and experience. Its style is dense, allusive, and aphoristic, belonging to the early twentieth-century revival of serious literary criticism shaped by theology, symbolism, and close attention to tradition. Charles Williams (1886–1945) was a poet, novelist, dramatist, critic, and longtime editor at Oxford University Press, later associated with the Inklings alongside C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. His Anglican imagination, fascination with Dante, and doctrine of "co-inherence"—the mutual bearing of persons and realities—deeply inform this work. He writes as one for whom poetry is not ornament but a mode of knowing. This book is recommended to readers interested in English literary tradition, Christian humanism, and criticism that treats poetry as an event of mind and spirit. Though demanding, it rewards patient reading with a distinctive vision of how English poetry thinks, believes, and transforms perception.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes.
- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.
- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing.
- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.
- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics
Length7 hrs 19 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 4, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Introduction
3Historical Context
4Synopsis (Selection)
5PREFACE
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6She stood in tears amid the alien corn
7Those heathen ranks to see;
8To Sextus naught spake he.
9II ‘THE GROWTH OF A POET’S MIND’
10speak of them as Powers
11through the turnings intricate of verse
12powerful in all sentiments of grief
13Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows
14Imagination—here the Power so called
15III THE CYCLE OF SHAKESPEARE
16I
17II
18III
19IV
20V
21VI
22VII
23IV MILTON
24I
25O Father, O Supreme of heavenly Thrones,
26Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
27II
28As that Theban monster that proposed
29V WORDSWORTH
30sea-beast, that on a shelf
31to typify the utmost we can know
32VI THE CRISIS IN LESSER POETS
33Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
34Though the dull brain perplexes and retards
35From the wet field, through the vext garden-trees,
36Come with the volleying rain and tossing breeze
37But the majestic River floated on,
38And faint the city gleams;
39Spring the great streams.
40VII CONCLUSION
41No hungry generations tread thee down;
42In ancient days by emperor and clown
43Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
44Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
45As ’tis for object strange and high;
46Upon Impossibility—
47I ask no more.
48APPENDIX CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS
49Analysis
50Reflection
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