The interrelationship of the ideas of apocalypse and millennium is a dominant concern of British Romanticism. This subject-matter is traced through a selection of works by the major poets, through an exposition of their underlying intellectual traditions, and an examination of the poems themselves.
The interrelationship of apocalypse and millennium is a dominant concern in British Romanticism. The Book of Revelation provides a model of history in which apocalypse is followed by millennium, but the major Romantic poets question the possibility of a successful secularization of this model. Is history developing towards end time and millennium, or is it cyclical and purposeless?
Paley reveals for the first time and in impressive detail the extraordinary diversity and millenarianism in English Romantic poetry.
