Thomas Traherne, Poet, Spiritual Writer
10 October -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of any Saint, page 531
Thomas Traherne was born in Hereford in about 1636. After
studying in Oxford and
being a parish priest for ten years, he became private
chaplain to the Lord Keeper of the Seals of Charles II.
Thomas was one of the English Metaphysical poets and yet, in
his lifetime, only one of his works was ever printed. It
was at the beginning of the twentieth century that his
poems, until then in manuscript, were published and he took
on the mantle of an Anglican Divine. His poetry is probably
the most celebratory among his fellow metaphysical poets,
with little mention of sin and suffering and concentrating
more on the glory of creation, to the extent that some
regard his writings as on the edge of pantheism. He died on
this day in the year 1674.