British clergyman, author & poet (1859-1919)
Rose and lily, white and red,
From my garden garlanded,
These I brought and thought to grace
The perfection of thy face.
Other roses, pink and pale,
Lilies of another vale,
Thou hast bound around thy head
In the garden of the dead.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"In a Garden"
Now, the most remarkable feature of Christ's teaching as exhibited in the Gospels is that He professed to bring a new revelation of the nature of God. This revelation He summed up in the word "Father," not using that word in the conventional sense of "creator," in which it is common to all religions, but in a sense from which could be inferred all manner of loving-kindness.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Religio Laici: A Series of Studies Addressed to Laymen
The breeze of Spring is not so blithe,
The sea-gull not so free,
No silver fish so light and lithe
To wind in the green sea.
Nor e'er did subtle alchemist
Compound such wondrous dyes
Of sapphire sky and emerald mist
As the hue of Barbara's eyes.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"Barbara"
The unsatisfactoriness of definitions of poetry arises usually from one or other of two causes. If the definition is that of a critic, it is the resultant of a long analytical process, and therefore not very intelligible apart from the process by which it has been arrived at; if it is the definition of a poet, it is certain to contain that element of poetry which it professes to explain.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Two Lectures Introductory to the Study of Poetry
Yet faith is evidence, and hope
Substance, and love sufficient fire;
And Art in these finds ampler scope
Than in fulfilled desire.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"In a Garden"
But the main direction of Christ's teaching is to urge that the soul's rest comes not from self-occupation, but from faith in God; that what we can do for ourselves is as nothing compared with what God can do for us.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Religio Laici: A Series of Studies Addressed to Laymen
The gradual change that came over the eleven chosen disciples was not the result of introspection, but of living with their Master, talking to Him, seeing Him work and pray, bringing Him their difficulties, pondering the words of truth that came as the answer to their thoughts. Their desires grew divine because they were "lift upward."
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Religio Laici: A Series of Studies Addressed to Laymen
Poetry requires a manner of viewing things which is not that of the average man, but is individual to the poet; it requires, in a word, genius. One could hardly expect Milton to point this out; having genius himself he would assume that everyone else had genius; he would assume that we all had the power of looking at the world not only frankly but freshly because he would not understand any other way of looking at it.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Two Lectures Introductory to the Study of Poetry
Love dies not nor can lovers die;
And though vast worlds between them lie,
Th' intelligencing current thrills
From each to each the thought love wills.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"In a Garden"
Alas, that the longest hill
Must end in a vale; but still,
Who climbs with toil, wheresoe'er
Shall find wings there.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Going Down Hill on a Bicycle
Is not Christianity something altogether simpler than this? Have not all dogmas been successfully dissolved by literary tact? Is not religion just "morality touched with emotion," just precepts of good living, only "heightened and lit up by feeling"? Well, that Stoicism answered more or less to this description we have already seen; it was a system of morals that at times put on an emotional dress and masqueraded as a religion, and by stripping off this dress we lose no characteristic feature.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Religio Laici: A Series of Studies Addressed to Laymen
Dearest, these household cares remit;
And while the sky is blue today,
Here in this sunny shelter sit,
To list the blackbird's lay.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"In a Garden"
In the eaves a swallow cri'th,
And hark, the sound of whetting,
Whetting and whetting the scythe
On the dewy lawn: O blithe,
Blithe sound, there's no forgetting.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"In a Garden"
Where there is no passion there can be no poetry.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Two Lectures Introductory to the Study of Poetry
'Twas in this lovely garden first
I saw your loveliness displayed;
You sat; my heart was high, and durst
Sit by you wondering, undismay'd;
You rose: my heart fell on its face
And knew the Genius of the place.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
"In a Garden"
In the world of nature we find the poets moved even to passion by objects that we hardly notice, or from long familiarity have come to ignore. Their strong emotion arises from their fresh vision.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
Two Lectures Introductory to the Study of Poetry