Background
Thomas was born in 1637 in Hereford, England, United Kingdom.
He was a shoemaker's son of Hereford.
(Thomas Traherne was a 17th-century mystical poet. He is a...)
Thomas Traherne was a 17th-century mystical poet. He is also the author of the prose work "Centuries of Meditation", an account of Traherne's early intuitions which is a convincing depiction of childhood experience in English literature.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140445439/?tag=2022091-20
(The 17th century writer Thomas Traherne is increasingly b...)
The 17th century writer Thomas Traherne is increasingly being recognised and studied as a theologian as well as a poet. The discovery, in 1997, announced by the author of this volume, of five new prose works and a poetic work has given huge impetus to the study of Traherne in literature and theology. This affordable, concise introduction to Traherne's life and work concerns Traherne primarily as a theologian and places him in an historical and intellectual context he has thus far lacked. It demonstrates his distinctive contribution to Anglican theology. Consisting of a 10,000 word introductory essay and biography it is followed by extracts from Traherne's work under the following headings: Creatures and Powers, Holiness and Happiness, Sin and Salvation, Christian Liberty, Advice on Ministry, and Prayers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1853117897/?tag=2022091-20
(For more than 200 years, Thomas Traherne's Centuries of M...)
For more than 200 years, Thomas Traherne's Centuries of Meditations was undiscovered and unpublished. The manuscript passed through many hands before finally being compiled into a book by bookseller and scholar BERTRAM DOBELL (1842-1914) in 1908. Centuries is a collection of poems written to express the rapture of life lived in accordance with God. Yet Dobell is careful to state that even though Traherne was a clergyman, there is plenty of beauty to be found in his poetry that does not require specific belief in Christianity or in God. Readers of many ages and persuasions will be touched by Traherne's passages on love and belonging. English author THOMAS TRAHERNE (1636-1674) received a master's degree in arts and divinity from Brasenose College, Oxford. He worked as a parish priest in Credenhill and wrote a handful of books, including Christian Ethicks (1675) and Roman Forgeries (1673).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1602067252/?tag=2022091-20
Thomas was born in 1637 in Hereford, England, United Kingdom.
He was a shoemaker's son of Hereford.
He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1652, and after receiving his degree in 1656 took holy orders.
In the following year he was appointed rector of Credenhill, near Hereford, and in 1661 received his M. A. degree.
The only work by Traherne published during his lifetime was Roman Forgeries (1673), an anti-Catholic polemic. His Christian Ethicks appeared posthumously in 1675, and his Thanksgivings in rhythmical prose were published anonymously as A Serious and Patheticall Contemplation of the Mercies of God in 1699. The greater part of Traherne’s poetry and his prose meditations remained unknown until their recovery in modern times. The chance discovery in 1896 in a London street bookstall of the manuscripts of Traherne’s Poetical Works (published 1903) and his Centuries of Meditations (published 1908) created a literary sensation. The manuscript of Poems of Felicity was subsequently found in the British Museum and published in 1910. Other substantial manuscripts were discovered in the 1960s and in 1997.
As a poet Traherne possessed originality of thought and intensity of feeling, particularly in his mystical evocations of the joy and innocence of childhood, but he lacked discipline in his use of metre and rhyme. Indeed, his poetry is overshadowed by the prose work Centuries of Meditations, in which he instructs an acquaintance in his personal philosophy of “felicity”; the latter was based on Traherne’s Christian training, his retention of vivid impressions of the wonder and joy of childhood, and his desire to regain that sense in a mature form.
He died at Bridgeman's house at Teddington on or about the 27th of September 1674.
(The 17th century writer Thomas Traherne is increasingly b...)
(For more than 200 years, Thomas Traherne's Centuries of M...)
(Thomas Traherne was a 17th-century mystical poet. He is a...)
He led a simple and devout life, and was well read in primitive antiquity and the fathers.