The poetry of Vernon Watkins
The poetry of Vernon Watkins
This thesis attempts to recognise certain themes in the
early work of Vernon Watkins, and to trace their development and modification throughout
his career as a poet.
It suggests that Watkins, because of his highly individual
ideas of the nature of time, saw this world as an imperfect copy of God's true,
eternal world, and that artists are men given occasional visions of eternal
perfection.
For him, it was the responsibility of the artist to accept
such visions of the truth and, through the practice of his art, interpret them
to his fellow-men. Art, therefore, was a specifically religious vocation for
Watkins. As a Christian, he believed that revelations of the true world were
necessarily bound up with Christ's intervention, but that other religions,
particularly the classical myths, enabled non—Christian artists to have some
idea of the truth.
The argument examines Watkins' recognition of his themes in
the work of other artists, particularly poets, and his use of individual works of
art in support of his claim for the essential nature of art. It also studies
the retention of certain key images, concerned with the defeat of time,
throughout his work, and suggests that these are used as symbols rather than as
simple images.
Although particular attention has been paid to those poems
which exemplify these obsessions most clearly, nearly all the published work has
been discussed, and certain temporary concerns and developments have been outlined.
It is suggested that some of Watkins' latest poems show a more precise interest
in the physical world about him and that this is reflected in work more exact
and visually detailed than might have been expected.
The thesis includes a full bibliography of the poet's work
in various fields.
University of Southampton
Norris, George Leslie
46bc20f2-be9c-488c-812f-54af4e9c1c6b
1972
Norris, George Leslie
46bc20f2-be9c-488c-812f-54af4e9c1c6b
Norris, George Leslie
(1972)
The poetry of Vernon Watkins.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 233pp.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This thesis attempts to recognise certain themes in the
early work of Vernon Watkins, and to trace their development and modification throughout
his career as a poet.
It suggests that Watkins, because of his highly individual
ideas of the nature of time, saw this world as an imperfect copy of God's true,
eternal world, and that artists are men given occasional visions of eternal
perfection.
For him, it was the responsibility of the artist to accept
such visions of the truth and, through the practice of his art, interpret them
to his fellow-men. Art, therefore, was a specifically religious vocation for
Watkins. As a Christian, he believed that revelations of the true world were
necessarily bound up with Christ's intervention, but that other religions,
particularly the classical myths, enabled non—Christian artists to have some
idea of the truth.
The argument examines Watkins' recognition of his themes in
the work of other artists, particularly poets, and his use of individual works of
art in support of his claim for the essential nature of art. It also studies
the retention of certain key images, concerned with the defeat of time,
throughout his work, and suggests that these are used as symbols rather than as
simple images.
Although particular attention has been paid to those poems
which exemplify these obsessions most clearly, nearly all the published work has
been discussed, and certain temporary concerns and developments have been outlined.
It is suggested that some of Watkins' latest poems show a more precise interest
in the physical world about him and that this is reflected in work more exact
and visually detailed than might have been expected.
The thesis includes a full bibliography of the poet's work
in various fields.
Text
Norris 1972 Thesis
- Version of Record
More information
Published date: 1972
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 459033
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/459033
PURE UUID: 2133f22f-9a0b-4a4c-aaef-e3ba290b7b27
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 17:03
Last modified: 12 Jul 2024 17:15
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Author:
George Leslie Norris
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