Metaphysical poets, selected poems Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- Literary context: ideas and innovations
- Aire and Angels
- A Hymn to God the Father
- A Hymn to God, my God, in my Sicknesse
- A Nocturnall upon St. Lucies day
- At the Round Earth's Imagin'd Corners
- A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Synopsis of Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Commentary on Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Language and tone in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Structure and versification in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Imagery and symbolism in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- Themes in Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
- A Valediction: of Weeping
- Batter my heart
- Death be not Proud
- Elegie XIX: Going to Bed
- Elegie XVI: On his Mistris
- Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward
- Lovers' Infiniteness
- Oh my blacke Soule!
- Satyre III: 'On Religion'
- Show me Deare Christ
- Since She Whom I Lov'd
- Song: Goe, and catche a falling starre
- The Anniversarie
- The Dreame
- The Extasie
- The Flea
- The Good-morrow
- The Sunne Rising
- This is my playes last scene
- Twicknam Garden
- What if this present
- Aaron
- Affliction I
- Death
- Discipline
- Easter Wings
- Jordan I
- Jordan II
- Life
- Love II
- Man
- Prayer I
- Redemption
- The Church-floore
- The Collar
- Vertue
- Hymn in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
- Hymn to St Teresa
- St Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper
- To the Countesse of Denbigh
- Ascension - Hymn
- Man
- Regeneration
- The Night
- The Retreate
- The Water-fall
- A Dialogue between Soul and Body
- On a Drop of Dew
- The Coronet
- The Definition of Love
- The Garden
- The Mower Against Gardens
- The Mower to the Glo-Worms
- The Mower's Song
- The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun
- The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers
- To his Coy Mistress
- Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax
- An Elegie upon the Death of the Deane of Paul's Dr John Donne
- To a Lady that Desired I would Love her
Themes in St Mary Magdalene
Difficult to extract
The spirituality behind St Mary Magdalene is very different from that of Donne and Herbert. It is difficult to extract ‘themes' which suggest that a coherent argument is going on. However, very broadly, we could say the main theme is the agony and ecstasy of love, which places it within the mystical tradition of Catholic spirituality. This can be seen much more clearly in Hymn to St Teresa, which he wrote about the same time. The woman's repentance obviously suggests her own sense of Personal Sinfulness and Unworthiness, but Crashaw makes little of this. He does not wonder about her past life, only the intensity of her present and ongoing contrition.
Investigating St Mary Magdalene
- Can you see any other themes in St Mary Magdalene?
- Can you see how the poem could be a translation into images of Crashaw's own inner intensities?
In any religion, there will be many ways to practice that religion, and to become aware of the divine. Spirituality can mean either the depth of religious practice and awareness in an individual; or the type of practice.
Used for the seeking of direct spiritual encounter with God, usually through a life of self-denial and contemplation.
1. Sometimes used to denote all Christians
2. Used specifically of the Roman Catholic church.
The act of turning away, or turning around from, one's sins, which includes feeling genuinely sorry for them, asking for the forgiveness of God and being willing to live in a different way in the future.
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