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Lyric Apocalypse: Milton, Marvell, and the Nature of Events

Ryan Netzley

John Milton’s and Andrew Marvell’s lyrics attempt to render the experience of apocalyptic change in the present. In this respect, they take seriously the Reformation’s insistence that eschatology is ... More

John Milton’s and Andrew Marvell’s lyrics attempt to render the experience of apocalyptic change in the present. In this respect, they take seriously the Reformation’s insistence that eschatology is not merely a spiritual allegory, but an historical phenomenon. Yet these poets are also embroiled in the revolutionary events surrounding the Regicide and, as a result, their works explore very modern questions about the nature of events. Ultimately, Milton’s and Marvell’s lyrics depict events as the earnest affirmation of possibility, not as crises calling for measured solutions. In this respect, both poets imagine the apocalypse as something more hopeful and interesting than the vengeful settling of old scores or even the moderating resolution of anxiety and struggle. Milton’s and Marvell’s lyrics challenge any retrospective understanding of events, including one built on a theory of revolution, for such a notion mistakenly imagines an end as a vantage point from which one could review history. Instead, these poems—all of which respond to specific historical or personal occasions—show that there is no “after” to the apocalypse, that if we are going to talk about change, then we should do so in the present, when there is still time to do something about it. Lyric, then, a genre inclined toward immediacy, acts as a mechanism for imagining present, and not just deferred, revelation. It also allows us, finally, to imagine an apocalyptic event that would be both hopeful and new.Less