The Poetic Imagination: An Anglican Spiritual Tradition

Anglicanism, as Countryman argues, is unusual among forms of Western Christianity in being defined primarily in terms of community rather than by authoritative theological principles. In the end, Anglicanism may be characterized by a poetic imagination well reflected in the work of many of the great lyric poets of the English language. Poets ranging from Herbert, Donne, and Vaughn, to Blake, Wordsworth, Owen, Eliot, and Auden, for all their differences, show a common reverence for scriptural and liturgical language, an appreciation for the created world, a sense of the presence/absence of God, and the power of grace.