“In the Fable This is Your Proper Home”: Imagining Lives of Faith through Poetry

Building on various interpretations of the words “faith” and “fable,” this essay presents Hill's poetry as inseparable from a quest for historical truth and linked to theological preoccupations. “Religion and literature” is a staid phrase that cannot avoid “the cost of discipleship” (as Bonhoeffer would say). The epic genre and certain theological myths are exposed as fables in Hill's poetry. Yet, personal religious testimony seems perceptible, with a strong attachment to the Anglican Church and Coventry Cathedral. Charles Péguy, whose poetry can be read as prayer, provides an example of one who loves the church while looking in from the outside. Like William Cookson he gives off a light that shines in darkness.