I promised yesterday that I would post the poem that gives its title to the song cycle, The Celestial Stranger, which was performed at the National Concert Hall on Friday night, so here it is as it appeared in the programme:
It’s very interesting to see such thoughts expressed in the mid-17th Century!
Thomas Traherne is an interesting poet in many ways and the associated story of his poetical manuscripts is strange and fascinating. The son of a cobbler, Traherne was a devoutly religious man who lived most of his short life (1637-1674) in relative obscurity as a clergyman and theologian. He was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, but very little of his work was published during his lifetime. A vast number of handwritten manuscripts survived his death, however, and many of these remained in the safekeeping of a local family in his native Herefordshire. However, in 1888 the estate of this family was wound up, sold, and the manuscripts became dispersed. Eventually, in 1897, one set of papers was accidentally discovered in a bookstall. Traherne’s first volume of verse was published in 1903 and a second collection followed in 1908.
When these poems finally found their way into the literary world they were greeted with astonishment as well as deep appreciation and they were widely influential: T.S. Eliot was a great admirer of Traherne, as was Dorothy L Sayers. There are also truly wonderful musical settings of some of Traherne’s poetry made by a young Gerald Finzi in his cantata Dies Natalis.
Over the years further manuscripts have also come to light – literally, in one case, because in 1967 another lost Traherne manuscript was found, on fire, in a rubbish dump and rescued in the nick of time! As late as 1997 more works by Traherne were discovered among 4,000 manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Lambeth manuscripts, from which the above poem is taken, are mostly prose writings, actually, but there are many poems in there too.
Traherne is sometimes described as the last metaphysical poet. However, it seems to me he might equally be described as the first romantic poet. The themes he tackles – love of nature and loss of childhood innocence – and his visionary, rhapsodic style have as much in common with William Blake and, especially, William Wordsworth as they do with better known metaphysical poets such as John Donne.
In the Dark 