The Triad of Mysticism in Crashaw’s Poetry

Abstract

This paper begins with the argument that Richard Crashaw’s mysticism can be traced even in the dearth of biographical information. Crashaw’s early family life, his residency at Little Gidding, his conversion to Catholicism, and his grasping of Saint Teresa as personal saint follow definite patterns of mystical lineage that shall be shown as apparent in his works. The mysticism of Crashaw, then, is logical progression of his psychology, and its true form is apparent in the employing of certain motifs seen manifest in many of his works dealing with concepts far from the topic of Saint Teresa. This paper, then, argues that Crashaw uses three main qualities, the female motif, the martyrdom or life-in-death motif, and the motif of weeping or tears, for his poetry. These are far from being unique when used singularly. No other poet, however, had ever combined the three diverse elements and formed such a perverse but original equation. The Crashavian triad-concept was entirely unique as any singular portion of the three, when employed without the accompaniment of the remaining two, must be seen as it shall relate subconsciously to the remaining motifs. Crashaw embraced Saint Teresa only as the embodiment of his feministic attitudes and as the exemplification of his particular designs towards martyrdom. He disregarded Teresa’s supposed mysticism as he did not require it. He accepted her spirit only as it fit within his individual triadic system to the exclusion of any of her more supernatural alignments. Crashaw’s mysticism springs from his subconscious self and is the setting of his three main motifs into a circumlocution of ideas appearing unclearly within the primary plane of the poem’s implied thought.