Thomas Merton’s Poetry of Endless Inscription: A Tale of Liberation and Expanding Horizons Cover Image

Poezja ustawicznej inskrypcji Thomasa Mertona – rzecz o wolności i rozszerzających się horyzontach
Thomas Merton’s Poetry of Endless Inscription: A Tale of Liberation and Expanding Horizons

Author(s): Małgorzata Poks
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Philology
Published by: Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej
Keywords: poetry;Thomas Merton;wisdom;

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts to demonstrate that the entire body of Thomas Merton’s poetry shows surprising consistency, and that even his late antipoetry of indignation and protest should be seen in terms of an evolutionary development rather than the sometimes postulated rupture. From Early Poems to the posthumously published The Geography of Lograire Merton’s poetic work registers a steady broadening of perspectives, an incorporation of themes and techniques towards and integrated (sapiential) vision of reality that would transcend opposites. At the beginning of his spiritual and poetic journey Merton claimed that “geography has lost allearthly north” (“Sacred Heart 2”). Little did he suspect that this loss was a prelude to a greater task – that of an eventual rebuilding of his geography, a reorientation, not rejection of his map.

  • Issue Year: 2/2018
  • Issue No: 31
  • Page Range: 59-110
  • Page Count: 52
  • Language: Polish