Defending Ancient Springs: Essays

On its first publication in 1967 "Defending Ancient Springs" signaled the start of its author's mature and prolific contribution to English literature, one that has gone on to demonstrate that she is among the major poet critics of her time. As in all her writings "Defending Ancient Springs" contains some trenchant observations on the accepted order of values and opinions that are inevitable reflection of a materialist culture. Dr Raine's criticism is centred on her belief that, in face of the sterility and bankruptcy of our secular culture, now is the time to reaffirm the language of sacred analogy, and all that is inherent in it, as the proper language of imaginative and creative discourse. It is only by means of such a discourse, at once universally and perennially the language of a man's spiritual destiny, that the needs of the human spirit are met so as to allow man to reach beyond the confines of a merely quantitative order of things. Among the essays that comprise this book are highly perceptive studies of those poets of her contemporaries whom the author regards as defenders and preservers of the ancient springs of sacred imagination. In addition there are several essays on more general topics including what is arguably the most brilliant essay in the collection, 'On the Use of the Beautiful.' These essays do indeed reaffirm the criteria against which various philosophical, psychological and aesthetic shibboleths that seek to bedevil the modern mind are to be properly judged. The reappearance of this volume will be welcomed by those readers who have come to see the necessity of life and art springing from a common source of spiritual values if they are to have any meaning.