Poets and Theologians
SIR.—Canon Lloyd's stimulating and provocative article in the Spectator of December 2nd invites one or two comments. The trouble about so much writing on this subject is that the authors are usually considerably better poets than theologians, or vice versa. In this case, the writer IS obviously at home on the theological side, but he seems to be less ham') among the poets. A glance at poetry from a slightly different angle moy throw light on the reason why poets have failed in celebrating, or have not attempted to celebrate, the great truths of Christianity.
Is it, after all, part of the pdet's job to translate "theological short- hand " into " intelligible and persuasive speech " ? Does not the greatest poetry deal with regions which lie just beyond the frontiers of language. with perceptions which can only be translated into hints, imagery, sugges- lion and symbol such as convey a perpetual challenge to the imaginsooe and spiritual insight of the reader? Not every poem, of course, can be
analysed in these terms, but it does seem true t• say that something of this kind lay at the heart of the poet's creative ecstasy before he set pen to paper, and that all great poetry might have as its refrain, " He that bath- ears to hear, let him hear." Dante. who is probably the most famous example the West has produced of the rare union of theologian and poet, reveals at the climax of his Paradiso that on the topmost pinnacles of vision the poet discerns the whole interwoven pattern of links and rela- tionships binding what had seemed disparate, " scattered leaves of all the universe bound by love in one volume." The difficulty comes when the poet tries to render what he has seen into speech and finds that there are no words, only images ; and on the highest level of all, as Dante puts on record, the mind itself will not bring hack afterwards to the consciously remembering poet what his spirit knows that it saw. It is to this supreme poetic insight, and not to the theological discourses which hold up the mighty structure of his poem, that Dante owes his immortality.
One has only to glance through the pages of almost any hymn-book to see what happens, alas, when the attempt is made to enlist poetry as the "assistant" of religion. Professor Wilson' Knight in The Christian Renaissance expresses the truer view in his well-known comparison of poetry and religion to two coupled horses. which may for a time pull out of line, but which are indissolubly yoked and will only reach their goal when they run their course as equal partners. If the poet's genius fulfils its nature in the realm of deep perception, of underlying meanings, links and relationships, then it is hardly surprising that it should instinctively shrink from touching, or fail when it does touch, the celebration of assured facts and certainties.—Yours faithfully, H. M. Wit.soN. 20 Somers Road. Reigate, Surrey.
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