Singing and dancing in the cruellest month
A reflection on theology and poetry in a time of Covid
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21719703 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher Southgate (0000-0001-5712-6024, University of Exeter, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 37-47 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theology in Scotland (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1465-2862 • E-ISSN: 2755-9238 |
| Publisher | University of St. Andrews Library (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.15664/tis.v28i1.2184 |
| OpenAlex | W3136330900 |
| Language | EN |
This article explores what contribution poetry and the arts can make to the human experience in a time of pandemic. It argues that artistic productions can ‘enlarge the heart’ such that sorrow and anxiety are not removed or defeated but are, as in the biblical text, ‘woven [...] into a larger imaginative story.’ This argument is made through close examination of three poems: T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, written in 1922 during the Spanish flu epidemic; “Quarantine” by Eavan Boland, set during the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s; and Malcolm Guite’s “Easter 2020”
Art · Famine · Literature · Poetry · Singing · Sorrow · The arts · Theology · Visual arts · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Medicine · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces
| Highly cited | No |
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