Lionel Pigot Johnson war ein englischer Dichter und Literaturkritiker. Er wurde in Broadstairs geboren, besuchte das Winchester College und das New College in Oxford, wo er 1890 seinen Abschluss machte. 1891 konvertierte er zum römisch-katholischen Glauben. Er lebte ein relativ einsames Leben in London und starb nach einem Sturz an einem Herzinfarkt.
Zu Lebzeiten veröffentlichte er seine Werke The Art of Thomas Hardy , Poems und Ireland and Other Poems . Er war außerdem Mitglied im Rhymers' Club.
Johnson schrieb viele Gedichte über Homosexualität.
1892, nach seiner Konversion zum Katholizismus und nach einem Streit mit seinem Freund Oscar Wilde, schuf Johnson ein Sonett namens The Destroyer of a Soul , . Im folgenden Jahr schrieb Johnson das Werk, das von vielen als sein Meisterwerk angesehen wird, das Gedicht The Dark Angel, in welchem er seine Homosexualität thematisiert. Wikipedia
“The second Death, that never dies,
That cannot die, when time is dead”
The Dark Angel (1895)
Kontext: p>I fight thee, in the Holy Name!
Yet, what thou dost, is what God saith:
Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death:The second Death, that never dies,
That cannot die, when time is dead:
Live Death, wherein the lost soul cries,
Eternally uncomforted.</p
“What comes now? The earth awaits
What fierce wonder from the skies?”
"July"
Kontext: What comes now? The earth awaits
What fierce wonder from the skies?
Thunder, trampling through the night?
Morning, with illustrious eyes?
Morning, from the springs of light:
Thunder, round Heaven's opening gates..
“Ill times may be; she hath no thought of time:
She reigns beside the waters yet in pride.”
"Oxford"
Kontext: p>Ill times may be; she hath no thought of time:
She reigns beside the waters yet in pride.
Rude voices cry: but in her ears the chime
Of full, sad bells brings back her old springtide. Like to a queen in pride of place, she wears
The splendour of a crown in Radcliffe's dome.
Well fare she, well! As perfect beauty fares;
And those high places, that are beauty's home.</p
“Well fare she, well! As perfect beauty fares;
And those high places, that are beauty's home.”
"Oxford"
Kontext: p>Ill times may be; she hath no thought of time:
She reigns beside the waters yet in pride.
Rude voices cry: but in her ears the chime
Of full, sad bells brings back her old springtide. Like to a queen in pride of place, she wears
The splendour of a crown in Radcliffe's dome.
Well fare she, well! As perfect beauty fares;
And those high places, that are beauty's home.</p
"The Precept of Silence"
Kontext: p>The winds are sometimes sad to me,
The starry spaces, full of fear;
Mine is the sorrow on the sea,
And mine the sigh of places drear. Some players upon plaintive strings
Publish their wistfulness abroad;
I have not spoken of these things,
Save to one man, and unto God.</p
“I fight thee, in the Holy Name!”
The Dark Angel (1895)
Kontext: p>I fight thee, in the Holy Name!
Yet, what thou dost, is what God saith:
Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death:The second Death, that never dies,
That cannot die, when time is dead:
Live Death, wherein the lost soul cries,
Eternally uncomforted.</p
“Imageries of dreams reveal a gracious age”
The Age of a Dream (1890)
Kontext: Imageries of dreams reveal a gracious age:
Black armour, falling lace, and altar lights at morn.
The courtesy of saints, their gentleness and scorn,
Lights on an earth more fair, than shone from Plato's page:
The courtesy of knights, fair calm and sacred rage:
The courtesy of love, sorrow for love's sake borne.
Vanished, those high conceits! Desolate and forlorn,
We hunger against hope for the lost heritage.
“Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death:”
The Dark Angel (1895)
Kontext: p>I fight thee, in the Holy Name!
Yet, what thou dost, is what God saith:
Tempter! should I escape thy flame,
Thou wilt have helped my soul from Death:The second Death, that never dies,
That cannot die, when time is dead:
Live Death, wherein the lost soul cries,
Eternally uncomforted.</p
“Thou poisonest the fair design
Of nature, with unfair device.”
The Dark Angel (1895)
Kontext: p>The ardour of red flame is thine,
And thine the steely soul of ice:
Thou poisonest the fair design
Of nature, with unfair device.Apples of ashes, golden bright;
Waters of bitterness, how sweet!
O banquet of a foul delight,
Prepared by thee, dark Paraclete!</p
“Because of thee, the land of dreams
Becomes a gathering place of fears”
The Dark Angel (1895)
Kontext: p>Through thee, the gracious Muses turn,
To Furies, O mine Enemy!
And all the things of beauty burn
With flames of evil ecstasy.Because of thee, the land of dreams
Becomes a gathering place of fears:
Until tormented slumber seems
One vehemence of useless tears.</p
“Morning, from the springs of light:
Thunder, round Heaven's opening gates..”
"July"
Kontext: What comes now? The earth awaits
What fierce wonder from the skies?
Thunder, trampling through the night?
Morning, with illustrious eyes?
Morning, from the springs of light:
Thunder, round Heaven's opening gates..
“Lonely, unto the Lone I go;
Divine, to the Divinity.”
The Dark Angel (1895)
Kontext: Do what thou wilt, thou shalt not so,
Dark Angel! triumph over me:
Lonely, unto the Lone I go;
Divine, to the Divinity.
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross (1895)
Kontext: p>King, tried in fires of woe!
Men hunger for thy grace:
And through the night I go,
Loving thy mournful face. Yet, when the city sleeps;
When all the cries are still:
The stars and heavenly deeps
Work out a perfect will.</p
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross (1895)
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross (1895)
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross (1895)
“Vanquished in life, his death
By beauty made amends:
The passing of his breath
Won his defeated ends.”
By the Statue of King Charles at Charing Cross (1895)
