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Dominican University of California

An Analysis of Imagery in Selected Poems of Thomas Merton

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>This dissertation compares the imagery of Merton’s early verse with that of his late poems to see what development, if any, has taken place. At first a difficulty presented Itself in attempting a chronological study, because the poems of Merton’s first books. Thirty Poems and A Man in the Divided Sea, are not arranged in the order of their composition. Father Louis, himself, however generously solved the problem by sending a list of dates of composition of poems. I chose, therefore, the seven earliest Published poems as the basis of comparison with three poems from the poet’s latest book of verse. The Tears of the Blind Lions. The three poems chosen are those which aroused most comment among reviewers. The total number of lines in the selected early poems is 158, in the later is 142; the total number of words in the first group is 1,000, while the total of the second is 1,065. A quantitative balance would seem to have been struck.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts
Level thesis:degree_level
Master's Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Humanities
Year
1951

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Gavin, Rosemarie Julie

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholar.dominican.edu:humanities-print-theses-1060

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Dominican University of California
Base URL
scholar.dominican.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Gavin, Rosemarie Julie. An Analysis of Imagery in Selected Poems of Thomas Merton. Master's Thesis thesis, 1951. https://scholar.dominican.edu/humanities-print-theses/61