Tag Archives: Angel

“I Asked a Thief To Steal Me a Peach” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

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I asked a thief to steal me a peach:
 He turn'd up his eyes.
 I ask'd a lithe lady to lie her down:
 Holy and meek she cries.

As soon as I went an angel came:
 He wink'd at the thief
 And smil'd at the dame,
 And without one word spoke
 Had a peach from the tree,
 And 'twixt earnest and joke
 Enjoy'd the Lady.

DAILY PHOTO: Cemetery Angels

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“The Call” by Charlotte Mew [w/ Audio]

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From our low seat beside the fire
 Where we have dozed and dreamed and watched the glow
 Or raked the ashes, stopping so
 We scarcely saw the sun or rain
 Above, or looked much higher
 Than this same quiet red or burned-out fire.
To-night we heard a call,
 A rattle on the window-pane,
 A voice on the sharp air,
 And felt a breath stirring our hair,
 A flame within us: Something swift and tall
 Swept in and out and that was all.
Was it a bright or dark angel? Who can know?
It left no mark upon the snow,
 But suddenly it snapped the chain
 Unbarred, flung wide the door
 Which will not shut again;
 And so we cannot sit here anymore.
We must arise and go:
 The world is cold without
 And dark and hedged about
 With mystery and enmity and doubt,
 But we must go
 Though yet we do not know
 Who called, or what marks we shall leave upon the snow.

Visionary Poets [Free Verse]

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Blake had visions of angels
&
Ginsberg had visions of Blake

I'm sure some 
angelheaded post-Hippie hipster 
has had, or will have had,
 visions of Ginsberg,

But who are Blake's angels hallucinating?

Maybe the angels have no eyes
and have
visionless visions 
of visionary poets?

BOOK REVIEW: Angels: A Very Short Introduction by David Albert Jones

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Angels: A Very Short IntroductionAngels: A Very Short Introduction by David Albert Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This book offers an overview of angels in the Abrahamic religious traditions (i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.) [It does take a quick dip into angel-like beings from other religious traditions – e.g. Hindu and Parsi – but generally comes down on the side of it doing a disservice to everybody to equate such beings across mythological traditions – with the possible exception of the New Age angel which is predominantly an offshoot from Abrahamic mythology.] The book considers the evolution of theological thinking on angels: how they’ve been portrayed in art; what they are [made of;] what their purposes are (i.e. messengers, healers, guardians, warriors, etc.;) and, occasionally, how they play into popular culture.

I took away a great deal from this book. For example, I learned about the differences between the djinn of Islam mythology and demons of Judeo-Christian mythology, and the theological underpinnings of this difference (i.e. Muslims do not believe angels have free will, and thus angels can’t be fallen, and so the djinn are a separate entity altogether [rather than being fallen angels.]) I found the book to be readable, interesting, and balanced in its approach to the topic. If you’re looking to learn more about how angels (and related beings, e.g. fallen angels / demons) have been treated by thinkers of various ages, without getting deep into the minutiae, this is a fine book to consider.


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