Gitanjali (Song Offerings)

...Rossetti’s willow wood A reference to "Willowwood," a sequence of four sonnets by the Pre-Raphaelite poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) that explores themes of love, grief, and the subconscious., or heard, perhaps for the first time in literature, our own voice as if in a dream.

Since the Renaissance, the writings of European saints—however familiar their metaphors and the general structure of their thought might be—have ceased to hold our attention. We know that we must at last leave this world, and we are accustomed in moments of weariness or spiritual intensity to consider a voluntary leaving. But how can we—who have read so much poetry, seen so many paintings, and listened to so much music where the desires of the body and the desires of the soul seem to be one—leave it harshly and rudely? What do we have in common with St. Bernard St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), a Cistercian abbot known for his extreme asceticism; legend says he traveled around Lake Geneva without ever looking at it to avoid being distracted by worldly beauty. covering his eyes so that they would not dwell upon the beauty of the lakes of Switzerland, or with the violent imagery of the Book of Revelation original: "Book of Revelations"? We would prefer, if we could, to find words full of courtesy, as they are in this book:

“I have received my permission to leave. Bid me farewell, my brothers. I bow to you all and take my departure. Here I give back the keys of my door, and I give up all claim to my house. I only ask for last kind words from you. We were neighbors for a long time, but I received more than I could give. Now the day has dawned and the lamp that lit my dark corner is out. A summons has come, and I am ready for my journey.”

And it is our own modern mindset—when it is furthest removed from the stern discipline of Thomas à Kempis Author of "The Imitation of Christ," a 15th-century manual for spiritual life emphasizing withdrawal from the world. or John of the Cross A 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet known for the "Dark Night of the Soul," which describes the painful process of detaching the soul from the world to find God.—that cries out, “And because I have loved this life, I know I shall love death as well.”