RT Article
T1 A Form of Belief: The Prayer Lyrics of Elizabeth Jennings and Louise Glück
JF Christianity & literature
VO 69
IS 2
SP 237
OP 251
A1 Stevens, Jeremy
LA English
PB Johns Hopkins University Press
YR 2020
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1703748522
AB This article considers the continuing relationship between contemporary lyric poetry and prayer through readings of poems by Elizabeth Jennings (a British cradle-Catholic) and Louise Glück (an American of no professed religion). In different contexts, both turn to the concept of a "book of hours" for formal inspiration, and—like many contemporary poets—engage with prayer as a formal model for lyric poems. In a secular age this makes their lyrics self-reflexive, questioning lyric presence. Ultimately, however, prayer's formal involvement with lyric expression reveals that both prayer and lyric depend on a continuing capacity for (different kinds of) belief.
DO 10.1353/chy.2020.0036