The Power of the Word Poetry and Prayer: Continuities and Discontinuities 29-30 June 2012 Prayer is the little implement Through which Men reach Where Presence—is denied them Emily Dickinson
Nicolas Poussin, The Inspiration of the Poet. 1628.

An international conference organized jointly by the Institute of English Studies and
Heythrop College, University of London.

Venue: Senate House, University of London

An international conference organized jointly by the Institute of English Studies and Heythrop College, University of London.

The analogy and continuity between poetry and prayer, the poetical and the mystical, has often been discussed. T he psychological mechanism used by grace to raise us to prayer is, Henry Bremond wrote, the same as that set in motion in poetic experience. Both poetry and prayer are rooted in an inner experience of concrete and fundamental values so that both invite, using the language of John Henry Newman, a real rather than a notional assent. Reading a poem can be perceived as a prayerful experience. W.H. Auden wrote: ‘to pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention – on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God – that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying.'

And yet it is also true that we have no shared understanding of the terms ‘prayer' and ‘poetry'. Some might claim that there is no connection between them. The traditions of poetry and prayer are numerous and the connections between them elusive. And poetry is, self-evidently, not exactly the same as prayer.

The conference will consider the similarities, interrelatedness and differences between poetry and prayer. What do poetry and prayer share? How do they differ? In what ways do they relate to each other? Theoretical reflections and historical surveys will provide a context for the discussion of individual texts and authors from different countries and cultural and religious traditions.

Keynote speakers:
Dr Mark Burrows (Cambridge, MA)
Prof. Dana Greene (Dean emerita, Emory University)
Dr Michael Barnes SJ (Heythrop College)
Prof. John Took (UCL)

Plenary Panel entitled ‘Poetry and Prayer':
Dr Hester Jones (Bristol University): Deep Calls to Deep
Prof. Jay Parini (Middlebury College, Vermont): Poetry as Immanence: How Language Informs Reality

Conference committee: Professor John Took (UCL), Dr Anna Abram (Heythrop College), Dr Antonio Spadaro (Gregorian University, Rome), Dr James Sweeney (Heythrop College), David Lonsdale (Heythrop College), Dr Francesca Bugliani Knox (Heythrop College), Dr Michael Kirwan (Heythrop College).

General Enquiries: Jon Millington, Events Officer, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU; tel + 44(0) 207 664 4859; Email jon.millington@sas.ac.uk.