Voluble Soul

Richard Willmott is a retired headmaster of the Dixie Grammar School and Chairman of the Traherne Association. He read English at Cambridge, and took a further degree in Renaissance French drama at UEA. In retirement he has taught poetry classes for the WEA and helps as an education volunteer at Hereford Cathedral. His previous publications include student editions of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience and of Ben Jonson's Volpone and The Alchemist, and an introduction to metaphysical poetry.

"Thomas Traherne is an inspiring writer for our times and this is an excellent introduction to the main themes of his poems. More than this, Richard Willmott sets Traherne firmly in the context of his own age and considers not just those writers who might have influenced him directly but those who shaped the intellectual, scientific and spiritual context in which he wrote."Professor Richard Harries FRSL"It is wonderful to see an introduction to Traherne that demonstrates literacy in both poetry and theology. Alongside key Trahernian themes such as felicity, innocence and atomism, there is a surefooted discussion of Traherne's wider intellectual context, from the Psalms to Augustine to the metaphysical poets. Willmott draws on an extensive knowledge and long love of Traherne to construct a scholarly but accessible study that foregrounds the voice of Traherne himself, an act of intellectual humility and generosity worthy of commendation." Elizabeth S. Dodd, Sarum College"Richard Willmott is a worthy guide through the full breadth of Traherne's poetry, helping us to understand his artful and original articulation of his vision of the world and of God. Willmott is able to do what Traherne scholars and enthusiasts in the 20th century could not do, because of the wealth of more recently discovered manuscripts now available. Furthermore, he masterfully situates Traherne's poetry within the context of his geographical landscape, historical period, philosophy, theology, and language."David Buresh, editor of Waking Up in Heaven: A Contemporary Edition of Centuries of Meditations

• AcknowledgementsPrefaceAbbreviations1. IntroductionI. Traherne and His TimesII. Traherne’s Views on PoetryIII. Traherne and the Metaphysical Poets: A Preliminary Case StudyIV. Christian Belief2. Poems of Felicity (1) and St Augustine’s Confessions: Sight and SinI. Personal ConfessionII. Sight, Memory and the SoulIII. TemptationIV. The Dangers of SightV. Innocence and Original Sin3. Poems of Felicity (2): Paradise and VisionI. The Garden of EdenII. Inner SightIII. Postscript: From ‘Things to Thoughts’, a Question of Style4. The Dobell Poems (1)I. Influence of the PsalmsII. InnocenceIII. Infancy and Original SinIV. ‘ Capacity’ in Traherne and John Davies of Hereford5. The Dobell Poems (2)I. The Soul: Traherne and Sir John Davies’ Nosce TeipsumII. The Soul as EyeIII. ‘A Temple of Eternity’: ‘An Hymn upon St Bartholomew’s Day’IV. The Voluble SoulV. ‘Love’ and ‘Goodness’6. The Ceremonial Law and Other Seventeenth-Century Treatments of Genesis: Atonement, Sacrificial Love and Spiritual FoodI. Didactic Religious Verse of the Seventeenth CenturyII. The Ceremonial Law: Atonement7. Thanksgivings8. Poems from Commentaries of Heaven (1)I. ‘Abhorrence’II. ‘Abundance’III. ‘Adultery’, ‘An Advocate’, ‘Affairs’IV. Microscopes and Telescopes: ‘Ant’ and ‘Astronomy’9. Poems from Commentaries of Heaven (2): Lucretius, Atomism and Traherne’s ‘Prosaic Poetry’I. Reactions to Atomism in Seventeenth-Century PoetryII. Two Major Responses in Poetry to Epicurean Philosophy: Milton and MoreIII. Traherne’s Poetry on the AtomIV. Conclusion: The Golden ClaspAppendix: Brief Biographical NotesBibliographyIndex