A Dish of Orts : Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare

This collection gathers essays and meditations that examine the nature and moral uses of imagination, arguing that human imagination reflects and participates in the divine creative impulse while relying on outward forms for expression. It combines literary criticism of major poets and dramatists with reflections on individual development, the fantastic and symbolic imagination, religion and ministering, and even sketches on the history of medicine, moving between philosophical argument, close reading, and devotional prose. The pieces are fragmentary and discursive, intended as concentrated presentations of larger meditations rather than a sustained narrative.