tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post5615717300554980010..comments2024-03-29T00:28:38.155+00:00Comments on Nigeness: 'The heaven-reflecting, usual moon...'Nigehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314891387515045404noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-59246182065571433272022-02-01T11:48:48.594+00:002022-02-01T11:48:48.594+00:00Thanks, Stephen – I'd never come across that o...Thanks, Stephen – I'd never come across that one. A beautiful ending. <br />Palmer wrote that churches 'are, to the Christian’s eye, the most charming points of an English landscape – gems of sentiment for which our woods and green slopes, and hedgerow elms, are the lovely and appropriate setting'. Not only to the Christian's eye...Nigehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13314891387515045404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-70469137987739076462022-02-01T07:56:35.988+00:002022-02-01T07:56:35.988+00:00Nige: Here is another poem inspired (I suspect) by...Nige: Here is another poem inspired (I suspect) by Palmer's painting:<br /><br />Returning from Church<br /><br />That country spire -- Samuel Palmer knew<br />What world they entered, who,<br />Kneeling in English village pew,<br />Were near those angels whose golden effigies looked down<br />From Gothic vault or hammer-beam.<br />Grave sweet ancestral faces<br />Beheld, Sunday by Sunday, a holy place<br />Few find, who, pausing now<br />In empty churches, cannot guess<br />At those deep simple states of grace.<br /><br />Kathleen Raine, The Oracle in the Heart (1980). (Those last five lines bring Larkin to mind.)<br /><br />Palmer's "A Hilly Scene" (c. 1826) (which I'm sure you know) is reminiscent of "Coming from Evening Church": the hills, the spire, the moon (a crescent this time). All of those wonderful Palmer moons.<br /><br />Thank you for the lovely post.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.com