Eric B. Song
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451850
- eISBN:
- 9780801468094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451850.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This chapter examines the ways in which Milton channels the cosmological implications of a world poised between union and fragmentation into a critical commentary on English nationhood and ...
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This chapter examines the ways in which Milton channels the cosmological implications of a world poised between union and fragmentation into a critical commentary on English nationhood and expansionist projects. Experimentation with genre facilitates this political commentary, as Paradise Lost yokes the pastoral and the epic together into unstable coexistence. The chapter begins by putting Milton's account of Eden in dialogue with seventeenth-century country house poetry and with colonialist writings. Through descriptions of Eden as country estate, Near and Far Eastern destination, and New World colony, Milton's narrative works to unsettle both insular myths and expansionist ambitions. The chapter also considers the gender politics that Eden shares with God's kingdom. At this level, too, Milton's poetry rebuts visions of domestic stability and expansionist ambitions.Less
This chapter examines the ways in which Milton channels the cosmological implications of a world poised between union and fragmentation into a critical commentary on English nationhood and expansionist projects. Experimentation with genre facilitates this political commentary, as Paradise Lost yokes the pastoral and the epic together into unstable coexistence. The chapter begins by putting Milton's account of Eden in dialogue with seventeenth-century country house poetry and with colonialist writings. Through descriptions of Eden as country estate, Near and Far Eastern destination, and New World colony, Milton's narrative works to unsettle both insular myths and expansionist ambitions. The chapter also considers the gender politics that Eden shares with God's kingdom. At this level, too, Milton's poetry rebuts visions of domestic stability and expansionist ambitions.
Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199676521
- eISBN:
- 9780191755675
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199676521.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature, Poetry
This chapter shows that in the seventeenth-century elegy was alive to various formal re-workings. Poets since Ovid had used the elegy to write erotic love poetry, while it had also developed its ...
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This chapter shows that in the seventeenth-century elegy was alive to various formal re-workings. Poets since Ovid had used the elegy to write erotic love poetry, while it had also developed its modern sense of poetry written for the dead. Lucy Hutchinson's Elegies develops an unusual and original kind of elegy, fusing the form's erotic, mourning and political functions and creating poems which are intensely both political and personal. Using original manuscript evidence from Hutchinson's poems and commonplace book, this chapter reveals Hutchinson alluding to Virgil's Dido (in the translation of courtly poet Sidney Godolphin), alongside the more troubling model of female articulacy presented by Eve; both figures are evoked in the Elegies. It also shows how three of Hutchinson's poems on her Nottinghamshire estate, Owthorpe, are elegiac and dystopian country house poems, developing the genre as used by Ben Jonson and Aemilia Lanyer.Less
This chapter shows that in the seventeenth-century elegy was alive to various formal re-workings. Poets since Ovid had used the elegy to write erotic love poetry, while it had also developed its modern sense of poetry written for the dead. Lucy Hutchinson's Elegies develops an unusual and original kind of elegy, fusing the form's erotic, mourning and political functions and creating poems which are intensely both political and personal. Using original manuscript evidence from Hutchinson's poems and commonplace book, this chapter reveals Hutchinson alluding to Virgil's Dido (in the translation of courtly poet Sidney Godolphin), alongside the more troubling model of female articulacy presented by Eve; both figures are evoked in the Elegies. It also shows how three of Hutchinson's poems on her Nottinghamshire estate, Owthorpe, are elegiac and dystopian country house poems, developing the genre as used by Ben Jonson and Aemilia Lanyer.
Eric B. Song
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451850
- eISBN:
- 9780801468094
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451850.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This book offers a reading of John Milton's major writings, finding in them a fundamental impasse that explains their creative power. According to the book, a divided view of creation governs ...
More
This book offers a reading of John Milton's major writings, finding in them a fundamental impasse that explains their creative power. According to the book, a divided view of creation governs Milton's related systems of cosmology, theology, art, and history. For Milton, any coherent entity—a nation, a poem, or even the new world—must be carved out of and guarded against an original unruliness. Despite being sanctioned by God, however, this agonistic mode of creation proves ineffective because it continues to manifest internal rifts that it can never fully overcome. This dilemma is especially pronounced in Milton's later writings, including Paradise Lost, where all forms of creativity must strive against the fact that chaos precedes order and that disruptive forces will continue to reemerge, seemingly without end. The book explores the many ways in which Milton transforms an intractable problem into the grounds for incisive commentary and politically charged artistry. This argument brings into focus topics ranging from Milton's recurring allusions to the Eastern Tartars, the way Milton engages with country house poetry and colonialist discourses in Paradise Lost, and the lasting relevance of Anglo-Irish affairs for his late writings. The book concludes with a new reading of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in which it shows how Milton's integration of conflicting elements forms the heart of his literary archive and confers urgency upon his message even as it reaches its future readers.Less
This book offers a reading of John Milton's major writings, finding in them a fundamental impasse that explains their creative power. According to the book, a divided view of creation governs Milton's related systems of cosmology, theology, art, and history. For Milton, any coherent entity—a nation, a poem, or even the new world—must be carved out of and guarded against an original unruliness. Despite being sanctioned by God, however, this agonistic mode of creation proves ineffective because it continues to manifest internal rifts that it can never fully overcome. This dilemma is especially pronounced in Milton's later writings, including Paradise Lost, where all forms of creativity must strive against the fact that chaos precedes order and that disruptive forces will continue to reemerge, seemingly without end. The book explores the many ways in which Milton transforms an intractable problem into the grounds for incisive commentary and politically charged artistry. This argument brings into focus topics ranging from Milton's recurring allusions to the Eastern Tartars, the way Milton engages with country house poetry and colonialist discourses in Paradise Lost, and the lasting relevance of Anglo-Irish affairs for his late writings. The book concludes with a new reading of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in which it shows how Milton's integration of conflicting elements forms the heart of his literary archive and confers urgency upon his message even as it reaches its future readers.
Eric B. Song
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451850
- eISBN:
- 9780801468094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451850.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to discuss the various manifestations of Milton's divided view of creativity: allusions to the barbarism of the so-called Eastern ...
More
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to discuss the various manifestations of Milton's divided view of creativity: allusions to the barbarism of the so-called Eastern Tartars; Milton's engagements with country house poetry and accounts of the New World; Milton's half-articulated thoughts about Anglo-Irish affairs after the Restoration; and questions about how the Son of God seeks to overcome the politics of undeserved dominion. Together, these discussions present a totalizing—although by no means exhaustive—view of how Milton works in response to a systemic problem that besets not only sinful humanity but also an entire cosmos governed by an all-powerful deity. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to discuss the various manifestations of Milton's divided view of creativity: allusions to the barbarism of the so-called Eastern Tartars; Milton's engagements with country house poetry and accounts of the New World; Milton's half-articulated thoughts about Anglo-Irish affairs after the Restoration; and questions about how the Son of God seeks to overcome the politics of undeserved dominion. Together, these discussions present a totalizing—although by no means exhaustive—view of how Milton works in response to a systemic problem that besets not only sinful humanity but also an entire cosmos governed by an all-powerful deity. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
