RODERICK WHITE



You can contact me by email:

rod.w.white@gmx.com


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Moon poems

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  I have been taking a deep look at the theme of ‘the moon’ and ‘moon poetry’. Considered by some as cliché the moon has fascinated us from the beginning of time. For the poet themes such as stillness, loneliness, beauty – for modern man we now have to consider if we want to return to the moon – could we start a colony on the moon, mine the moon? Who owns the moon? These are the issues (and more) that we are dealing with now. For myself, with a scientific background in geology, I am curious, we do need to study the moon and perhaps return. I regret ‘Moon Landing’ by W.H. Auden. It is a ‘grumpy’ poem reflecting the negative attitudes to the 1969 moon landing. It seems ‘dated’ now to say that NASA was a ‘boys club’ and that no girl would have thought of travelling to the moon – especially after the film ‘ Hidden Figures ’. I thought for a start I would compare one of the classic ‘Old poems’ number 7, From Arthur Waley’s ‘Chinese Poems’ with ‘Sad Steps’ by Philip Larkin. Number 7 ...
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An essay on the development of Christian Doctrine by John Henry Cardinal Newman

 In around 2009 I published some chapter summaries of 'Development of Christian Doctrine' by Newman. These are not copies of the text - which is already available online but my summary notes with a few quotes and published them on Scribd. To be honest I had forgotten about them until yesterday when I received an email saying that Ch 3 summary had been removed due to a copyright violation. I find this very difficult to understand, the book had its second edition in 1878 - so there shouldn't be any copyright issues and it is not even the original text - it is my text. So ch3 was removed but I am going to publish ch1 and ch2 here, The Development of Christian Doctrine is from a very interesting period in the life of Newman. It was first published in 1845 and helped to reassure him that he could convert to Roman Catholicism. Chapter 1 Chapter 2 I don't know if these are useful or not but I might continue. Here is a copy of the 1878 text online: Development of Christian Doct...
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Doctor Pusey heard the call

 Below is the text of my poem for the Pusey House Creative Arts booklet. I have always had a deep curiosity for the Oxford Movement but up until recently, it was mostly about John Henry Newman. When I started to read about Dr Pusey, I realised he was a force to be reckoned with, even if he wasn't as well known today. I don't write poetry that often at the moment but I feel this might be quite good. Dr Pusey was calling for a new movement of holiness. I like church history because there is the opportunity to understand the impact of one particular person at one specific point in time.  The 1830s were a turning point, another turning point was the 1960s. The interesting thing is I still don't think the full impact of the 1960s has been felt, perhaps not even appreciated. The world is different now but the issues they were dealing with have not gone away. Doctor Pusey heard the call When Doctor Pusey read the lines: “Alas! Can a greater evil befall Christians, than for their t...
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